Maryland Hospital Error Attorneys

Waldorf Hospital Errors

When we are patients at a hospital, we sometimes literally place our lives in the hands of medical professionals. We trust that they have received adequate training and have the skills and knowledge to treat whatever ails us. While there are without doubt highly skilled doctors, surgeons, nurses, and other medical professionals in the medical field, unfortunately, there are also incidents of medical professional mistakes and errors that can cost a patient their life.

A recent study by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services analyzed the medical records and cases of a random sampling of 780 Medicare patients that were discharged in October of 2008. Researchers discovered that about one in seven Medicare patients that are hospitalized every month suffer at least one occurrence of an "adverse event," which accounts for approximately 134,000 people per month, at a total of about 1.6 million every year. Of these patients that suffer an adverse event, approximately 15,000 die every month, which results in over 180,000 deaths per year that are a result of an error, or the error was a factor in their death. The study noted that 44 percent of the errors were "clearly or likely preventable." The adverse events in the study included drug-dosing errors, serious bed sores, surgical and catheter infections, too much IV fluid, falls, poor wound care, equipment malfunctions, and surgical mistakes, such as operating on the wrong part of a patient's body or on the wrong patient entirely.

According to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), medical mistakes are the third largest cause of death in the United States, closely following cancer and heart disease. There are approximately 225,000 fatalities each year attributed to iatrogenic mistakes, which are unintended, adverse complications or effects that are caused by or are a result of medical treatment, advice, or care. According to the JAMA report, there are approximately 7,000 fatalities every year as a result of medication errors in hospitals; about 12,000 fatalities every year due to unnecessary surgery; around 20,000 fatalities every year as a result of other, various hospital errors; approximately 80,000 fatalities every year due to nosocomical infections in hospitals; and about 106,000 fatalities every year as a result of adverse effects to prescribed medications.

The most common hospital errors include:

Health regulators in Maryland estimate that insurance companies paid about $522 million in 2008 to cover complications in hospitals that were judged to be preventable, which occurred in approximately 55,000 of the state's 800,000 inpatient cases.

If you have been suffering as the result of a hospital error in Maryland, you have legal rights. If you are unsure of where to begin, consulting with a Maryland medical malpractice attorney can help you determine the right course of action. At Alpert Schreyer, LLC our Maryland hospital error lawyers can build a strong case on your behalf while you focus on recovering from your hospital error injury. Call us today at (301) 932-9997 or (800) 489-1577 to learn how we can help.

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From our offices in Waldorf, Bowie and California, Maryland our personal injury lawyers handle cases throughout the entire state of Maryland, including the Eastern Shore of Maryland, including the counties of Montgomery County, Howard County, Prince George’s County, Anne Arundel County, Calvert County, Charles County and Frederick County, as well as the cities of Bethesda, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Upper Marlboro, Columbia, Ellicott City, Annapolis, Glen Burnie, Bowie, College Park, Greenbelt, LaPlata, Oxon Hill and Waldorf