web1_bench-959462_1920.jpg

Our Opinion: Inject more poetry into our public spaces

letter-to-editor.png

Letter to the Editor: PennEast Pipeline Co. puts safety first

<p>Joan Rivers was an unusual talent. Unfortunately, her unnecessary death and the untimely deaths of Michael Jackson and other celebrities were hardly unusual.</p><p>In each case, serious but preventable medical errors were said to have led to their premature passing. Still, most medical malpractice deaths do not affect the rich and famous. Rather, they largely afflict ordinary American families.</p><p>For years, the medical establishment has been aware of the unacceptably large number of fatalities from medical malpractice. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine placed the death toll in the United States at up to 98,000 patients per year. Most recently, the prestigious British Medical Journal further quantified the figure at some 251,000 patients annually.</p><p>In simpler terms, medical malpractice is the third-leading cause of death in America &#8211; behind only heart disease and cancer.</p><p>Unfortunately, defining the scope of the problem by more accurately determining the death toll has failed to advance appropriate solutions and save lives. That is because the health care industry and its allies focus, and cause us to focus, on the wrong problem.</p><p>Instead of meeting the issue head-on, hospitals and medical societies &#8211; supported by insurance companies &#8211; concentrate on avoiding accountability by attacking victims&#8217; rights and overhauling the civil justice system. While this deliberate strategy has succeeded in deflecting our attention, saving face for medical providers, lining the pockets of insurance companies and their executives, and shifting much of the cost to victims and taxpayers, it has done nothing to diminish the harm to patients and their loved ones.</p><p>Over the years, many special privileges have been granted to hospitals and medical professionals by lawmakers and the courts based on promises of more efficiency, lower health care costs, safer treatment and better outcomes. These privileges include supplying secrecy in internal &#8220;peer review&#8221; of errors that occur in hospitals and the reporting of such errors, demanding confidentiality in recording the outcomes of malpractice litigation, and limiting how lawsuits may be filed.</p><p>Despite such concessions, savings in health care costs, and more importantly a reduction in deaths and serious injuries, have failed to materialize. Thus, while medical malpractice lawsuit filings, as registered by our state Supreme Court, have fallen dramatically over the years, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority reported a 9 percent rise in &#8220;serious events&#8221; &#8211; events that cause injury or death &#8211; in our state&#8217;s hospitals during 2015.</p><p>Still, insurers, hospitals and physicians&#8217; groups continue to demand more protections for those committing mistakes, such as a pending proposal before the Pennsylvania Legislature to insulate emergency room doctors from lawsuits when they violate established training, procedures and professional standards.</p><p>The proposed bill would require injured patients and families of deceased patients to prove that an ER doctor acted with &#8220;gross negligence&#8221; in spite of his or her specialized training and certifications. Gross negligence is a much higher standard that is extreme when compared with ordinary negligence, which is the failure to exercise reasonable care. All other physicians, specialists and professionals would continue to be held to the traditional, ordinary negligence standard.</p><p>It is long past time for everyone to concentrate on safety and meaningful reform of health care errors, instead of limiting the legal options of patients and families who have been the victims of medical wrongdoing.</p><p>Past actions, assurances and pledges of concern by health care providers have proved no cure for dangerous mistakes. With so many lives and so much suffering at stake, the health care industry should no longer be allowed to divert scrutiny from its shortcomings or be rewarded by the Legislature with special privileges for its failures.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_Fallk-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_Fallk-1.jpg</photo0><caption0></caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>David I. Fallk</p><p>Guest columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>David I. Fallk is a Scranton attorney.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

David I. Fallk: Health care firms should strive to prevent medical malpractice, not weaken laws regarding it