Oregon residents want to be able to trust their doctors and nurses with anything. They disclose very personal information and open themselves up in very vulnerable ways in order to receive the best medical care possible. Doctors are held to a high standard in order to ensure that patients’ trust is not broken.
However, in many cases, doctors and hospitals don’t live up to these standards. Doctors make mistakes, fail to diagnose illnesses and make people sicker. Hospital negligence, in some cases, people may cause people to suffer a worsened medical condition following treatment. When this happens, a medical malpractice suit can help compensate the victim for the injuries they have suffered.
This compensation can be obtained in a couple of ways. One, the court can order compensation, or a patient can enter into a settlement with the hospital. Under Oregon law, settlement is highly encouraged. A settlement allows the parties to quickly and quietly settle the dispute while getting the injured patient the compensation they deserve.
As a result, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a new ruling which requires hospitals to report when they settle medical malpractice claims. Under this ruling, payments that are settled out of court must also be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank. This disclosure must be made even if the doctor or hospital is not ruled at fault.
This rule will help to ensure that all medical malpractice claims are reported — whether or not the courts got involved. This way patients can hopefully be safer in the future and not feel pressured to go to court to ensure proper oversight of negligent providers.
Source: Healthcare Dive, “HHS requires reporting of all malpractice payments,” Tammy Worth, Aug. 15, 2014