All medical procedures have some degree of inherent risk. When things go wrong, it is not always the fault of the medial professional who is handling the situation. Sometimes an amalgamation of unforeseen events causes a patient to suffer unexpected consequences. These are what are known as adverse events. According to a paper from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there is a big difference between such adverse events and negligence. Negligence implies that the less-than-great consequences of the medical procedure are the fault of the medical professional. Additionally, thousands of errors are made every year “resulting in injuries to patients who many deserve compensation.” Yet it can be challenging to determine what constitutes medical error and what is resultant from the standard risk inherent to medical procedures.

According to the NIH, a Harvard Public Health study found that roughly 27 percent of adverse effects from medical procedures occur because of negligence on the part of a medical professional. “Medicine is not an exact science,” the NIH states, “and complications are an inherent feature of any procedure or medical intervention.” Surgeries, across the board, typically carry a 3 to 4 percent risk of infection. While sterilizing equipment and ensuring that all professionals are held to the highest standard of cleanliness can help mitigate the risk of infection from unsterile objects during surgery, there is still this risk during a surgical procedure.

Another important distinction to make when determining medical negligence or error is that between system errors and negligence. A doctor is negligent, for example, if the patient is suffering kidney failure, needs dialysis, and the doctor fails to put the patient on dialysis. However, say the doctor does order dialysis but a nurse misunderstands and the patient does not receive dialysis. This is simple human error. A 1999 paper from the Institute of Medicine, “To Err is Human,” states that “most medical errors are the result of unavoidable human error, which can only be reduced through system changes.”

If you suspect that you have been the victim of medical error, the most important step is to seek legal counsel. Do not go through it alone. Contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney today.

Kaiser Health News is reporting on a new Medicare program that tracks the results of hip and knee replacement surgeries. Medicare has released the names of the 97 best and the 95 worst hospitals to have these procedures at.

Over 500,000 Medicare patients have either hip or knee replacement surgeries each year. In 2010 alone, between Medicate patients and those with private health insurance, more than 332,000 patients had hip replacement surgery (costing $8 billion) and 700,000 patients had knee replacement surgery (costing $12 billion).

The tracking system looked at operations performed from June 2009 through July 2012. It looked at how often patients were readmitted within a month after replacement surgery. Serious complications from the surgery, like infections, blood clots, problems with the replacement joint or death, were also tracked. An average was determined by Medicare, and most hospitals fell in that average. Two hospitals from Connecticut fell on that list, with one falling into the best category and one falling into the worst category.

Several of the hospitals that fell in the worst list complained about the procedure that was used to determine these results. They said that the results were outdated given the time-frame that Medicare used to track results. New technologies and new treatment models were two examples of how treatments have improved over the past year or two.

Medicare is going to add the results of this tracking as part of its formula when deciding to penalize hospitals. After conducting a similar tracking on readmission rates for patients with heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia, the federal agency has already penalized more than 2000 hospitals nationwide by paying those hospitals less. Once these new figures are factored in, a hospital could lose as much as 3 percent per patient stay.

If you’ve had side-effects or injuries from joint replacement surgery, contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney today to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.

In late December, Abrams Royal, a compounding pharmacy based in Texas, voluntarily recalled all products produced at its Dallas plant meant for sterile use, according to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) press release. “Recalled products include injectable medications, intravenous (IV) injections, eye drops, pellet implants, nasal sprays, inhalation solutions, and eye ointments that were distributed between June 17, 2013 and December 17, 2013,” the FDA reports. Because these products are meant for sterile use, patients who come into contact with them face serious risk of infection or injury.

Abrams was made aware of the situation after just one adverse event. A patient in California who received a mineral IV injection “had blood cultures that tested positive for Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, a gram-negative bacterium that can cause many types of infection,” according to the FDA. Such infections range from pneumonia to meningitis.

Howard Skalmberg, director of the Office of Compliance at the FDA said in the statement that patient safety is the agency’s top priority. “Using these products puts patients at an unacceptable risk,” Skalmberg said, “and we urge health care professionals to follow recall instructions issued by the firm.”

It’s not just unsterile medications, such as those recalled by Abrams, which cause infections in the hospital, however. Dr. Peter Pronovost, director of the Quality and Safety Research Group at Johns Hopkins told CNN that about 100,000 people die every year from infections they receive at the hospital. “Take the two most deadly types of infections hospitals give their patients: infections from ventilators and infections from catheters. Together, those kill 65,000 people a year,” he said.

If you or someone you know has been infected while at the hospital in Connecticut—either from faulty or unsterile medications, such as what has been recalled by Abrams, or because of hospital conditions—the most important step is to seek legal counsel. Don’t go through it alone. Contact Richard H. Raphael, Attorney at Law, today.