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Recent Blog Posts
What You Need to Know in Order to Provide Informed Consent
Before a doctor performs a medical procedure, the physician must provide you with enough information to allow you to give your informed consent to the procedure. If the doctor fails to obtain your informed consent, and you are injured during the procedure, then you may have a medical malpractice case against the doctor.
The Virginia medical negligence attorneys of Shevlin Smith can evaluate your case and determine whether your doctor obtained your legal medical consent before performing a non-emergency procedure.
What is Informed Consent?
Washington D.C. and Virginia informed consent law requires that you be provided with enough information to make a reasoned decision before you agree to a medical procedure. Specifically, your doctor should explain:
- Your diagnosis
- Why he or she is recommending a specific procedure
- The potential risks and expected benefits of the recommended procedure
- The likelihood that the procedure will be successful
Reasons Teenage Drivers Cause Car Accidents
It is no surprise that that new drivers between the ages of 16 and 20 are most likely to be in accidents. However, in order to keep teen drivers safe and to prevent serious car crashes, Virginia parents and teens must think about the reasons why so many teenagers are getting hurt or killed on the road.
Study Finds Surprising Reason for Teen Accidents
According to a ten year national study recently completed by the Texas Transportation Institute*, teenage drivers are most commonly involved in nighttime driving accidents (see full article).
Overall, the study found that the following factors contribute to teen accidents:
- Darkness: reduced visibility from driving at night and fatigue contribute to make darkness the single biggest risk factor for teen drivers;
- Cell Phone Use: today's teens are very comfortable with cell phones and, as a group, do not appreciate the dangers posed by using a cell phone and driving.
Nighttime Driving & Teens
The late teen years can be exciting for teens and terrifying for their parents. Parents worry that their children will be distracted while they are driving and that they will hurt or kill themselves or others. According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, drivers under the age of 20 are the group with the most distracted driving fatalities and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the crash rate per mile driven is about 10 times higher for 16 year olds than for drivers between the ages of 30 - 59. As parents of teenage drivers, it is important to understand how most teen accidents happen and what to do if you, or your child, are involved in an accident with a teenage driver.
Nighttime Driving Leads to Teenage Car Accident Fatalities
Earlier this month the Texas Transportation Institute released the results of a 10 year national study. The study found one factor that resulted in more fatal car accidents for teenagers than any other factor. According to the study, the most dangerous thing that a teenage driver can do is to drive at night.
Anti-Patient Bill Fails In Virginia General Assembly Subcommittee
Victims of medical malpractice gained an important verdict this month when an anti-patent bill failed to garner any support in the House Civil Law Subcommittee of the Virginia General Assembly. House Bill No. 306 sought to create a pilot program to assess the creation of disclosure programs in health care facilities that were designed to encourage the disclosure of adverse medical outcomes between health care providers and patients.At first glance, many of us would concede that a bill that aims to encourage the disclosure of adverse medical outcomes is worthy. After all, patients deserve to learn the reasons why an adverse medical outcome occurred, and the therapeutic relationship between a health care provider and the patient can sometimes be preserved or even enhanced with frank discussions of what went wrong. It is fair to say that no one objects to legislation that is aimed at increasing the opportunity for frank discussions.
House Bill No. 306
House Bill No. 306 went a step farther than simply encouraging frank discussions, however. The proposed legislation contained a very dangerous provision that would have effectively eviscerated patients' rights. This provision stated as follows:
Retained Foreign Object Cases Remain A Patient Safety Risk
The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) accredits and certifies more than 15,000 hospitals and other healthcare organizations in the United States. Its mission is to improve the safety and quality of care patients receive at these entities. It tracks "sentinel events," which it defines as "an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof." Such events are called "sentinel" because they signal the need for immediate investigation and response.One type of sentinel event that JCAHO tracks are retained foreign objects. Retained foreign objects are surgical items left in patients following surgery. Estimates indicated that surgical items are left in 1,500 people per year in the United States, including:
- Surgical sponges
- Surgical towels
- Surgical instruments (clamps and retractors)
These items are most often left in:
- The abdomen or pelvis (54% of the cases)
Concussions Can Cause Severe Brain Injury
Personal injury claims involving brain injury are some of the most contested cases in the legal field. Insurance companies and their attorneys are often skeptical of traumatic brain injury claims and the devastating effects that brain injuries have on the injured and the injured's families. Today, there is further compelling evidence that these injuries are not only very real but of severe consequences.
A new study by the Center for Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) has looked at the brains of dead athletes and found overwhelming evidence that repeated concussions can cause severe brain damage.Several findings from the recent CSTE study are significant for not only athletes but anyone who has suffered a concussion:
- The researchers found that the brain damage was extensive and clearly visible. The damage was found throughout the brain including in deep layers. The damage was not limited to only the superficial tissues of the brain.
Shevlin Smith's Praise For "A Call To Action For Doctors"
Dr. SreyRam Kuy, a medical doctor, recently wrote an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times entitled "Stand up for Patients." We found this physician's perspective on the current status of our nation's health care system and the response of doctors to be both refreshing and enlightening.Dr. Kuy noted that physicians are increasingly outspoken on issues such as tort reform and cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates, both of which affect physicians' income. However, there seems to be relative silence about reports of poor health care or medical negligence in the United States. He cites the report compiled by the Institute of Medicine regarding statistics of medical negligence, which our firm has previously cited and discussed in prior blogs). He also pointed to the recent Commonwealth Fund's national scorecard showing that the U.S. ranks last among 19 industrialized nations on infant mortality, and 15th on "mortality from conditions amenable to healthcare" - that is, early deaths that might have been prevented with proper care. Dr. Kuy boldly reminds colleagues that a physician's first loyalty should be to his or her patients, rather than to bolstering personal income, stating that physicians hold a "sacred trust" to protect their patients' health.Dr. Kuy cites a positive example of physicians with the proper motivation that recently occurred in California. Blue Cross of California requested physicians to disclose any medical conditions that might enable it to cancel patients' medical coverage. Dr. Kuy praises the California Medical Association and the physicians who protested this outrageous request, which was so obviously not in the best interests of the patients.Although Dr. Kuy seems sympathetic to the low morale of physicians, he suggests that a fight for the patients rather than for greater income is the better way to boost morale. We certainly agree that the medical community would be better served, both in its public image and its own morale, if it were better policed from within.As we have pointed out before, the drop in physician income has very little, if anything, to do with medical malpractice lawsuits, and has everything to do with how insurance companies choose to compensate physicians for patient care and how insurance companies choose to charge physicians for medical malpractice insurance. The enemy is not the legal system, which seeks to provide recourse for patients who have been injured by the negligence of physicians and other health care providers. The true enemy is insurance companies who consistently put their corporate profits ahead of everyone else:
Is there too much medical malpractice litigation?
In his book, “The Medical Malpractice Myth,” Tom Baker seeks to answer the question of whether there is too much medical malpractice litigation in the United States or whether there is too much medical malpractice. His answer may surprise you. Tom Baker examines every relevant study performed in the last thirty years on the issue of medical malpractice. Most of these studies were conducted by health care providers, including:
- Physicians
- Hospitals
- Nurses
Based on those studies and other data he has gathered on his own, Tom Baker concludes that there is an epidemic of medical malpractice in the United States. His figures are staggering. Doctors and hospitals injure about one out of every twenty-five hospital patients. Negligence is the cause of injury in about one of every four of those cases, meaning that one patient in every 100 is the victim of medical malpractice. Of note, more people are killed by medical malpractice than are killed by auto and workplace accidents combined.
Virginia Super Lawyers Recognize Thomas G. Smith And Michael J. Shevlin
Thomas G. Smith and Michael J. Shevlin have been named by Virginia Super Lawyers magazine as two of the top attorneys in Virginia for 2008 in two areas of law — Medical Malpractice and General Personal Injury. Only five percent of the lawyers in the state are named by Super Lawyers.
The selections for Super Lawyers are made by Law & Politics, a division of Key Professional Media, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn. Each year, Law & Politics undertakes a rigorous multi-phase selection process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent evaluation of candidates by Law & Politics attorney-led research staff, a peer review of candidates by practice area, and a good-standing and disciplinary check.
Law & Politics publishes Super Lawyers magazines across the country. In addition to the magazines, Law & Politics publishes newspaper inserts and magazine special sections devoted to Super Lawyers. In 2008, Super Lawyers will reach more than 13 million readers.
703-591-0067
10513 Judicial Drive, Suite 200, Fairfax, VA 22030
703-591-0067
From our office in Fairfax, Shevlin Smith, P.C. serves clients throughout Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., including Alexandria, Annandale, Arlington, Ashburn, Burke, Centreville, Dale City, Fair Oaks, Leesburg, Manassas, McLean, Oakton, Reston, Springfield, and Woodbridge, as well as Fairfax County, Arlington County, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County.
Results listed are not a guarantee or indication of future case results.
