Medical Simulations Reduce Malpractice Cases

The Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania has found a way to help lessen the incidence of malpractice lawsuits filed in the case of mothers who have given birth and suffer from the medical issue of postpartum blood loss. The condition is the leading cause of death for women if the bleeding is not caught in time. That is why doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals worked through a simulation of a postpartum hemorrhage with an actor posing a patient having a severe postpartum complication.

According to one of the participants in the training, nurse Lauren Hughes, “It mimicked the chaos” of real life.”

These trainings that deal in various high-risk simulations have helped the University hospital system cut malpractice expense by as much as 26 percent since 2011 and allowing them to save $92.2 million in the year, even as revenue rose by some 28 percent, to $4.3 billion.

Temple University Health System has noted an even greater decline in liability costs, to $11.3 million in fiscal 2015 from $48.1 million in 2011.

Effective communication between staff as well as having transparency with patients and their families seems to be the key to the reduction in costs associated with medical malpractice lawsuits. Industry experts have noted that if patients and their families are treated differently up front when something happens or a medical complication arises, or when a mistake is made, those patients and their families are far less likely to initiate a medical malpractice lawsuit. What makes matters worse and invites legal complications is if patients and their families have the perception that doctors and healthcare providers are somehow covering up mistakes and errors.

Even when doctors do their best to keep their patients informed and give the best possible care to them, things can go wrong. When something like this happens, that’s the time when you need an attorney who specializes in malpractice and personal injury law.

If you or a loved one has suffered as the result of medical malpractice, contact the offices of Bottar Law, PLLC immediately. We will meet with you to discuss your claim and determine if you have a case. We can then begin your malpractice lawsuit in order to insure that you and your loved ones receive the compensation you deserve.