by Jerry Meyers on June 7, 2011
To The Editor
Regarding: The Value of Disclosing Medical Error
I write this in response to an article posted by ALICIA GALLEGOS, of American Medical News, posted June 1, 2011. I heartily support the Lockton Report analyzing the findings of Aug. 17, 2010, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. Such disclosures are not only good business but are also required.
American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics says physicians are ethically obligated to disclose what happened “when a patient suffers significant medical complications that may have resulted from a physician’s error.”
The attempt to cover up medical errors results in those involved eventually forgetting the fact that errors occurred. Instead of correcting the practices leading to harm all energy is expended in making it seem that nothing untoward occurred.
I am a trial attorney and have represented victims of malpractice for 34 years. I think it absurd that I have to speak for the victims because their doctors, nurses, etc. won’t.
Sincerely,
Jerry I. Meyers
Pittsburgh, Pa
by Jerry Meyers on June 3, 2010
ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS in a recent New York Times article describes outrageous behavior by the clinical director and medical director of Harlem medical center. Under the direction of these former hospital officers (they have since been fired and demoted, respectively) the cardiology department of the Medical Center permitted 4,000 echocardiograms performed on patients suffering from suspected cardiac problems to be read only by technicians. The tests supposed to be read by cardiologists were not submitted to any doctor for review. An investigation conducted by physicians from another medical center suggests hundreds of these patients may have suffered serious harm as a consequence of inadequately skilled technicians reviewing these tests instead of cardiologists. In an apparent cost cutting move, Harlem Medical Center had allowed their staff of cardiologists to be reduced. The cardiologists claimed the back log of echocardiograms requiring physician review accumulated at the rate of 2500 per year. The Harlem Medical Center cardiologists’ cries for additional staff went unheeded. Harlem Medical Center continues to deny that any patient suffered harm.
Certainly patients who trusted the Harlem Medical Center have been betrayed. Can anyone believe that similar problems are not occurring with some frequency elsewhere? The only real oversight is limited help that medical malpractice lawyers can provide victims after the fact. And yet trial lawyers are besieged in the Legislature of most states and by members of the Congress who are blind and deaf to the pleas of victims to not restrict the only tool available to most victims to uncover the truth and seek justice.
What do you think?
