Oregon residents may be surprised to learn that approximately 1 million medical injuries occur each year. Many of these injuries are caused by doctor or hospital negligence or mistakes, and health care facilities across the country are taking proactive steps to reduce the likelihood of a medical malpractice lawsuit being filed against them. Particular attention is being paid to reducing medication errors and unnecessary surgeries, which combine to claim the lives of almost 20,000 patients each year.
Some hospitals are hoping that the implementation of additional quality control procedures will help them to avoid malpractice litigation. An independent third party may be brought in to ask patients questions about their experiences after undergoing a surgical procedure, and this information could provide doctors with valuable insights should a patient’s condition deteriorate. The goal of this kind of quality control follow up is to identify patterns of substandard care that could lead to improvements in procedures or the removal of medical team members who regularly perform poorly.
Drugs are generally controlled tightly in hospitals, but current protocols are unable to prevent 7,000 deaths being linked to medication errors every year. Many of these mistakes occur when doctors and nurses are overworked and fatigued, and some hospitals are introducing an additional layer of oversight to ensure that medical personnel are alert and focused at all times. Individuals could be tasked with establishing maximum shift lengths and checking staff rotations to ensure that doctors and nurses have adequate time to rest between shifts.l see better results immediately.
The injuries caused by hospital negligence can be catastrophic in nature, but seeking civil remedies is sometimes difficult. The defendants in medical malpractice lawsuits will often go to great lengths to protect their reputations, but an attorney with experience in this area may call upon medical experts to establish that mistakes were made.