Last year, we wrote a blog post entitled “Five Tips to Help You Avoid Negligent Healthcare”. Most of the tips encourage individuals to take ownership of their own healthcare and to ask tough questions of their doctors. We all need to be fully informed before agreeing to any medical procedure, especially those that are elective in nature.

This week, a new tool called the “Surgeon Scorecard” has been released that may provide some assistance to patients. ProPublica, a non-profit news organization, collected and analyzed five years worth of data from Medicare data, and released that data, which focuses on complications and adverse event rates of approximately 17,000 US surgeons. The data was released in a searchable format by surgeon name, city or hospital. The “Surgeon Scorecard” had more than a half million page views in the first 48 hours it was up.

The ProPublica article accompanying the release noted that “It’s conventional wisdom that there are “good” and “bad” hospitals – and that selecting a good one can protect patients from the kinds of medical errors that injure or kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. But a ProPublica analysis of Medicare data found that, when it comes to elective operations, it is much more important to pick the right surgeon.”

Some surgeons have already attacked the data as being improperly focused upon complications and not the overall outcome of the surgery or patient satisfaction. A complication is typically described as an adverse event caused by pre-existing factors that were outside the doctor’s control. For example, not all patients are in the same health, habits, immunity or healing power; in short, each individual is different in how he or she responds to surgery and its possible complications. The surgeons who object to the report argue that as long as surgeons operate, complications will occur. They posit that surgeons who tackle more difficult surgery will have more complications and should not be penalized for dealing with them.

That argument has merit. Of course, the data has merit too. Time will tell if the ProPublica data has real value. In the meantime, the Surgeon Scorecard is at a minimum another tool for patients to use when seeking medical care so that they can ask the right questions before choosing a medical provider.

We have great respect for physicians and the challenges that they face. Physicians undergo extensive training to learn to provide proper care to their patients. Despite their education and training, we realize that physicians are human, and thus, are capable of error. An unexpected outcome from a procedure does not, by itself, constitute malpractice. However, we don’t believe that doctors should be treated differently than others when they make mistakes that cause serious harm to patients.

What should you do if you suspect that you’ve received negligent health care?

Time is short in medical malpractice cases and there is a statute of limitations that may forever bar your case from being brought to court, so you should contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible. A good malpractice lawyer will perform a thorough review of your medical records to determine whether your potential case is actionable. A malpractice claim exists if a provider’s negligence harms the patient. It is important to remember that a bad outcome isn’t always proof of medical negligence.

You should also be aware that bringing a medical malpractice case can be extremely expensive and stressful. Further, these cases last for years. The vast majority of cases end with no payment to the patient or a defendants’ verdict in favor of the doctor. As a result, we will not pursue a medical malpractice claim unless the injuries and damages are substantial and an expert in the same field agrees that negligence occurred and the claim is worthy to be filed.

If you need legal assistance, or for further information about a medical malpractice case, please contact us.