Common Medical Mistakes

Our friends at Mishkind Kulwicki Law Co., L.P.A. discuss how over the past 40 years, they have handled over 1000 medical malpractice lawsuits resulting in recoveries exceeding $350,000.00 in settlements and verdicts. Through their vast experience, they have seen patterns in medical errors as medical mistakes repeat themselves year after year.  What are some common medical errors that injure patients? An experienced medical mistake lawyer can help evaluate these situations, identify liability, and pursue compensation for those harmed by preventable medical errors.

Miscommunication

In the hospital setting, there is frequently a team of physicians, nurses and therapists that care for individual patients.  The members of that team change frequently as healthcare workers come and go with shift changes and the involvement of different specialists.  Providers are supposed to communicate with one another through the electronic medical record.  However, we see that the electronic medical record can be a crutch that creates a false sense of security that subverts communication of critical details in patients’ course. 

The electronic medical record (EMR) is set up to allow providers to hand-craft notes about their findings on physical exams and based on patients’ oral histories.  However, it is also set up so that misleading content is routinely auto-loaded into the record.  For example, when providers fail to perform an exam or perform a limited exam, the electronic medical record will auto-populate the record with entries showing that the patient was fully examined and all systems were within normal limits.  This deception creates the impression that the patient is doing well even when the physical exam was glossed over.

Miscommunication also occurs when physicians do not speak with one another but rely exclusively on the EMR. This is usual practice.  Without direct communication, a physician may assume that another physician is aware of a development or is handling a particular part of the patient’s care when that is not taking place.

Another type of miscommunication involves interactions between doctors and nurses.  Doctors often fail to specify the type or frequency of nursing monitoring that their patient requires, instead relying on nurses to determine the type of monitoring even when the nurses are not trained to understand some patients’ individual needs.  Nurses are tasked with reporting adverse changes in the patient’s condition.  However, it is frequently the case that nurse fail to report a deteriorating clinical picture.  Some doctors do not read nurses notes, so there is virtually no communication.     

Forgotten test results

Test results arise from the pathology lab, including blood work results, and from the radiology department.  Both the American College of Radiology and the major pathology societies advocate for direct communication (word of mouth) when critical, abnormal results are detected.  When that communication fails, abnormal test results may not be acted upon in a timely fashion leading to catastrophic results.  When months or years go by, a small primary cancerous growth can spread, taking the patient from an early, treatable stage to a terminal, incurable stage.  With infections, delays of days or even hours can mean the difference between life and death.

Inexperienced and understaffed personnel  

Hospital administrators are always trying to cut costs.  Since labor is a major cost, we see different ways that hospitals push inexperienced and overworked personnel to the forefront of patient care.  In the nursing home setting, nurse aides often find that they are required to care for far too many patients making their job impossible.  Because their working conditions are so impossible, call-offs are routine, thereby exacerbating understaffing.  In hospitals, overworked nurses are leaving the profession in droves.  Hospitals argue that they should be allowed to let LPNs and aides do the work of nurses, leading to de-skilling, when the real answer is safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.  Hospitals are also pushing for AI to replace nursing judgment even though AI “hallucinates” and cannot take individual patients into account.

We see many medical mistakes occurring on weekends and holidays when hospitals are predictably understaffed.  Medical errors also tend to occur with greater frequency in July when new hordes of residents begin the trial-and-error portion of their careers. 

New procedures and drugs  

Pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers stand to make billions of dollars off of new technologies that enter the marketplace.  Their drugs and medical supplies are often not ready for prime time, resulting in harmful complications.

Not listening  

Patients often complain that physicians are too busy to listen to them.  Patients may not know the right terminology to report their symptoms, or they may forget an important symptom in the course of a fleeting interaction with their doctor.  It is incumbent upon the physician to take the time to talk with and listen to patients in order to provide proper care.