Info Center

Blog

DID YOU KNOW?

Medical malpractice can delay the diagnosis of cancer. In the realm of healthcare, the haunting phrase “early detection saves lives” serves as a guiding principle for doctors and a beacon of hope for patients. This is true in the battle against cancer. Despite advances in medical technology and increased awareness, delayed cancer diagnoses remain a troubling reality that can turn potentially treatable cancer into a death sentence, particularly when these delays result from medical malpractice.

Understanding Medical Malpractice in Cancer Diagnosis

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional deviates from the standards of their profession, potentially causing harm to a patient. In the context of cancer diagnosis, malpractice can manifest as missed, incorrect, or delayed diagnoses. These errors can stem from misread test results, failure to order appropriate screenings, ignoring patient complaints, or inadequate follow-up on abnormal findings. The consequence is a precious loss of time in a fight where every second counts.

The Critical Window: Why Timing is Everything

Cancer is notorious for its aggressive nature and ability to spread rapidly. Early-stage cancers are often localized and may be manageable with less aggressive treatments. However, as time progresses without intervention, cancer cells can invade surrounding tissues, metastasizing to other parts of the body, making them substantially harder to treat. The progression from a localized tumor to metastatic cancer could mean the difference between a prognosis that offers hope for remission and one that revolves around palliative care.

Stages of Cancer Progression

Cancer is typically categorized into stages, I to IV, based on its size and extent of spread. Early-stage treatment usually involves localized interventions that could be curative.

Stage I and II: Often confined to the organ of origin; high potential for successful treatment.

Stage III: Typically involves regional spread, requiring more aggressive treatment.

Stage IV: Denotes distant metastasis, often regarded as incurable, with a focus on prolonging life and enhancing quality.

A delay in diagnosis often means a shift from stages I or II towards stages III or IV, drastically reducing survival rates and significantly impacting treatment options and outcomes.

Real-World Implications: The Human Toll

Beyond the statistical and medical dimensions lies the human aspect of delayed diagnoses. Patients and their loved ones endure a tumultuous journey marked by unexpected developments and heartbreaking realities. A delay not only escalates the physical toll of more aggressive treatments but also exacts a heavy emotional and financial burden. Families face difficult decisions, grieve lost opportunities for earlier interventions, and may struggle with questions about preventable outcomes.

Accountability and Change: Steps Toward Prevention

Doctors are trained to recognize signs and symptoms at an early stage. Medical professionals receive thorough training that is regularly updated to reflect advances in screening and diagnostic methodologies. A CT scan or MRI can detect a tiny tumor before it’s too late. Implementing AI and machine learning tools aids in reading diagnostic images and ensuring nuances are not overlooked. Patients must be encouraged to voice concerns and seek second opinions if something feels amiss.

Conclusion

While scientific advancements continue to forge pathways toward more effective cancer treatments, the age-old wisdom of early detection remains paramount. As we strive toward an era where fewer lives are lost to cancer, ensuring timely, accurate diagnosis must be at the forefront because early intervention is the difference between life and death when it comes to cancer. Combating delayed diagnoses caused by medical malpractice is a vital part of improving cancer care outcomes. If you are a victim of medical malpractice, call the Kelly Firm at 615 eight million or visit us online at Kellyfirm.net. We’re board-certified medical malpractice lawyers who’ve spent a combined 80 years getting settlements for injured patients. Let us put our board certification to work for you.

The Kelly Firm is Now on TikTok! Come Check Us Out!

We’ve got exciting news — The Kelly Firm is now on TikTok! 🎉

As a family firm of board-certified medical malpractice attorneys, we’ve always been committed to keeping our clients informed and engaged, whether it’s through in-depth consultations, helpful resources, or legal advice. Now, we’re expanding our reach to a new platform where we can connect with a fresh audience — TikTok!

If you’re not already on TikTok, it’s a fast-growing social media platform where users share short, engaging videos. While TikTok is known for fun trends and dances, it’s also become a powerful tool for businesses to share information creatively and engagingly. And we’re excited to be a part of that movement!

Why Follow Us on TikTok?

At The Kelly Firm, navigating the legal world can feel overwhelming, especially when dealing with a personal injury or medical malpractice case. That’s why we’re making it easier for you to access expert legal tips and insights in a way that’s engaging and easy to understand. Here’s what you can expect from our TikTok content:

1. Quick Legal Tips: We’ll break down complex legal topics into short, digestible videos. Whether you’re wondering about your rights after an accident or how to handle a medical malpractice claim, we’ve got you covered.
2. Myth-Busting: There is a lot of misinformation about personal injury and malpractice law. We’ll bust common myths and set the record straight so you can make informed decisions.
3. Behind-the-Scenes: Get a sneak peek into our firm and meet the team behind The Kelly Firm. We’re more than just attorneys — we’re a family passionate about serving our clients.
4. Success Stories & Testimonials: We’ll share real stories from clients we’ve helped, showcasing our commitment to achieving justice and fair compensation for those who need it most.

How to Find Us on TikTok

We’d love for you to follow us on TikTok and join the conversation. It’s easy to find us:

• • Search for @TheKellyFirmTN (our username) on TikTok, or click the link below to head straight to our profile!
  • Follow us for regular updates and helpful legal content.
  • Like, comment, and share our videos with friends and family who may find them useful.

@thekellyfirm

Join the Conversation!

At The Kelly Firm, we believe in making legal information more accessible and engaging. TikTok allows us to meet our audience where they are and offer value in a fun, interactive way.

So, if you’re curious about what we’re up to, want to learn more about your rights, or enjoy watching insightful and entertaining content, be sure to check us out on TikTok today!

Join us, and let’s make the law a little less intimidating, one TikTok at a time!

The Kelly Firm — Your trusted personal injury and medical malpractice law partner. Contact us for a free consultation, and don’t forget to follow us on TikTok!

Experts say U.S. hospitals still have a long way to go to improve patient safety.

Nearly 1 in 4 patients who are admitted to hospitals in the U.S. will experience harm, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The stark findings underscore that, despite decades of effort, U.S. hospitals still have a long way to go to improve patient safety, experts say.

“These numbers are disappointing, but not shocking,” said lead study author Dr. David Bates, the chief of general medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the medical director of clinical and quality analysis for Mass General Brigham in Boston. “They do show we still have lots of work to do.”

The research looked at the medical records of 2,809 patients who were hospitalized in 11 Boston-area hospitals in 2018. The study excluded people who were admitted for observation only or for hospice, rehabilitation, addiction treatment or psychiatric care.

Hospital data showed that 663 of the patients — about 24% — experienced at least one event during their stays that negatively affected their health, even temporarily.

A total of 222 adverse events were considered preventable, meaning errors resulted in patient harm. That translates to about 7% of the total admissions the researchers analyzed. Twenty-nine people, or 1% of the total of those admitted, experienced serious preventable adverse events that resulted in serious harm. One death was considered preventable.

The majority of the bad outcomes, however, were deemed unpreventable. They can include known side effects from certain medications or known risks associated with surgery.

The most common adverse events overall (nearly 40%) were related to medications given in the hospital. Surgery and other procedures accounted for just over 30%, followed by what the study authors called “patient-care events,” at 15%. They include falls and bedsores, both of which are considered preventable.

One bright spot, experts said, was that infections acquired in the hospital accounted for only about 12% of the adverse events — a significant decrease from a 1991 study that found infections were the second-most-common adverse event.

The 1991 study, called the Harvard Medical Practice Study I, is considered landmark research. Using data from patients hospitalized in New York state in 1984, it found that only about 4% of hospitalized patients experienced harm. However, the study looked for a smaller range of adverse events than the current research, and hospitals have become much better at reporting harm when it does occur.

“It’s clear that, at least, the rate is not going down and that harm continues to be a really serious issue,” Bates said.

Dr. Albert Wu, the director of the Center for Health Services and Research Outcomes at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in an email that while progress has been made in some areas, new risks have emerged as medicine has advanced.

“Although we have eliminated some causes of harm, there are new kinds of harm that have been created, associated with potent new medications and new procedures,” said Wu, who wasn’t involved with the new research.

For example, drug companies have made significant advances over the three decades since the last report was published, but with an abundance of available drugs comes more opportunity for medication-related errors.

“There are many more medications available today compared to 1991, and some of the medicines have a smaller therapeutic margin, which is the gap between the therapeutic effect and dangerous dose,” said Dr. Donald Berwick, the president emeritus and a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston. Berwick wrote an editorial that was published Wednesday alongside the new study.

Even the technologies implemented to prevent medication errors can create new opportunities for mishaps.

“New technologies are always double-edged and you need to have intense surveillance to monitor them. You need to anticipate what can go wrong and build dykes around the hazards,” Berwick said.

Linda Aiken, a professor and the founding director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at Penn Nursing in Philadelphia, said that at the heart of the patient safety issue is staffing.

“Since we’ve been doing research on patient safety, we consistently find that one of the major explanations for poor patient outcomes is insufficient numbers of nurses at the bedside,” she said. “Having a sufficient number of nurses is a building block for safety.”

In a 2018 study published in the journal Health Affairs, Aiken and her team interviewed nurses at 535 hospitals in the U.S. Sixty percent reported that there weren’t enough nurses at their hospitals to provide safe care. The pandemic exasperated already stressed nursing staff, leading to strikes.

Just one state, California, has legal criteria regarding the minimum number of staff members needed for safety in hospitals. One nurse cannot care for more than five patients at a time.

“If you actually implemented a standard like this, you could save a lot of lives that fall under patient safety,” Aiken said. “These are preventable, but there are too few nurses there to provide the type of care that would prevent those adverse events from happening.”

Experts said efforts must also be made to prevent the harms that were categorized as unpreventable, as well.

“Practices evolve so that nonpreventable errors can be prevented by changes in practice,” Wu said. “For example, if you completely stop using a medication that [has a] high rate of nonpreventable adverse effects, those adverse effects won’t happen anymore.”

Dr. Peter Pronovost, the chief quality and clinical transformation officer at University Hospitals in Cleveland, used to work on preventing bloodstream infections, which were once considered “inevitable rather than preventable.”

“When we changed that narrative, and used checklists, we reduced these infections that used to kill more people than breast or prostate cancer by 80%,” he wrote in an email.

Wu said patients should “keep in mind that there is the potential for harm while being hospitalized.” He encouraged patients to strive to be active parts of their health care teams, telling hospital workers about what diagnoses they have, medications they are taking, allergies they have and care they’ve gotten elsewhere.

“If you think something might be wrong, speak up!” he said.

Expert testimony is needed for medical malpractice cases because the standard of care is a professional standard, and a layperson would not have knowledge of the accepted professional standard of care. Expert testimony can provide insight into the standard of care and how it was breached, helping to establish liability for the defendant. In addition, expert testimony can provide clarification for complex medical issues, making it easier for the jury to understand the complexities of the case. The Tennessee legislature requires the injured patient in a healthcare liability case to present expert testimony to prove the standard of care and the breach of that standard, as well as the causation between the breach and the injury or death. The Tennessee Supreme Court has held that the expert testimony must be from a qualified expert in the relevant field. A board-certified medical malpractice attorney has a list of medical experts who will review claims and testify in court.

1. Gather the relevant medical and legal documents: Medical malpractice claims require detailed evidence. To evaluate a medical malpractice claim, you will need to gather all the relevant medical records, including the patient’s medical history, any test results, and any reports from treating physicians. You will also need to review any legal documents related to the case, such as any contracts or court filings.

2. Assess the applicable laws: Medical malpractice claims are based on a complex set of laws, so it is important to assess the applicable laws in the state where the claim will be filed. The laws vary from state to state, so you will need to be familiar with the specific laws in the jurisdiction where you will be filing the claim.

3. Evaluate the evidence: Once you have gathered all the relevant documents, you will need to evaluate the evidence to determine if there is a viable claim. You will need to review the medical records to see if the patient’s treatment was below the accepted standard of care in the medical community. You will also need to assess any evidence of negligence or breach of duty on the part of the treating physician.

4. Calculate damages: If you determine that a viable medical malpractice claim exists, you will need to calculate the damages. This involves assessing the physical, emotional, and economic harm caused by the medical negligence. This will include any medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering experienced by the patient.

5. Consult with a board-certified medical malpractice attorney: Once you have evaluated the claim and determined that there is a viable claim for medical malpractice, it is important to consult with a qualified attorney who has extensive experience in handling these cases. An experienced medical malpractice attorney can help you understand your legal rights and options, as well as assist you in navigating the legal process.

Here are the top 10 reasons why they and hospitals injure patients based on our experience in handling medical malpractice cases over the last 30 years::

1. Lack of communication: Doctors may not communicate effectively with other healthcare professionals or with their patients.

2. Poor documentation: If a doctor fails to document important information, such as the patient’s medical history, his or her diagnosis, or the treatment prescribed, this can lead to medical mistakes.

3. Multitasking: Doctors may be trying to complete multiple tasks at once, which can lead to errors in judgement.

4. Fatigue: Doctors may be working long hours and become overworked and fatigued, which can lead to mistakes.

5. Lack of knowledge: Doctors may be unfamiliar with certain medical conditions or treatments, leading to misdiagnoses or incorrect treatments.

6. Inadequate training: If a doctor has not received adequate training in a certain area, this can also lead to mistakes.

7. Unclear instructions: If a doctor fails to provide clear instructions for medication or treatment, this can lead to medical errors.

8. Miscommunication: Miscommunication between doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals can lead to medical mistakes.

9. Technology: Technical issues, such as computer glitches, can lead to medical errors if they interfere with the doctor’s ability to provide care.

10. Unsafe practices: If a doctor fails to follow safety protocols or fails to consider the risks associated with certain procedures, this can lead to medical mistakes.

Until health care professionals change their behavior to put patient safety ahead of profit.

Why should injured patients or the family of a deceased patient should sue a doctor or hospital for medical malpractice? If someone asks you why you did it, tell them it is about justice and accountability. The American system of justice was built upon personal responsibly. Everyone must be held accountable for harms caused by their carelessness. If the neighbor’s son threw a baseball through your window and shattered it, would you want him to pay for the damage? If a police officer rear-ended your car, would you want him to pay for the damage? If an Orkin inspector failed to do his job and your house were eaten up by termites, would you want Orkin to pay for the damage? Doctors and hospitals are no different. They also provide a service which must be done in accordance with the standard practice. If they violate those standards and injure you, would you want them to pay for the damage? It is not the government’s responsibility to pay for someone else’s carelessness. That would be socialism.

Doctors and hospitals are professionals who are not above the law. If a patient has been injured due to the reckless or careless treatment by a health care provider, then they may be entitled to compensation for their medical expenses, lost wages, pain, impairment, disfigurement, and distress. Suing for medical malpractice can help ensure that the injured patient or family of deceased patient is compensated for their injuries, and it can also help to hold the doctor or hospital accountable for their mistakes. In addition, it can help to prevent future medical malpractice and ensure that healthcare providers are held to a higher standard of care.

Some argue that medical malpractice lawsuits and verdicts lead to increased costs for healthcare providers in the form of defensive medicine and higher malpractice insurance premiums for doctors and hospitals. Defensive medicine is the practice of ordering medical tests, procedures, or consultations, or prescribing drugs, primarily to reduce the physician’s legal liability rather than to benefit the patient. In other words, it is ordering tests and treatments that may not be medically necessary, to protect the doctor from potential lawsuits. Every patient wants defense medicine to protect them from getting sicker or dying. No patient wants the doctor or hospital to refuse to order tests, treatments, procedures that could save their life. Patients want the best care possible even if it costs more time and money. Otherwise, what is the point of having health insurance or Medicare in the first place?

Every doctor and hospital have medical malpractice insurance coverage. Everyone! Medical malpractice insurance premiums are the fees paid to an insurance company by a medical professional or hospital to cover potential losses related to medical malpractice claims. The premiums are based on the medical professional’s risk of being sued, the type of medical practice they are in, and the amount of coverage they are requesting. Lawsuits can mildly affect these costs. On the other hand, the Tennessee legislature imposed has caps on damages in medical malpractice cases. The government’s caps limit the amount of money that can be awarded by a jury in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The maximum damages allowed by law are $750,000 or $1,000,000 for noneconomic damages depending on whether it is a “catastrophic case.” These caps reduce the amount of insurance premiums doctors and hospitals pay. This means that insurance companies pay less in settlements or verdicts, which results in their higher profit margins. In other words, malpractice insurance companies make more money on the backs of injured patients.

Statistics show medical malpractice lawsuits and verdicts lead to increased scrutiny of doctors and hospitals, as well as a greater focus on patient safety. This improves the quality of care that patients receive. We know from direct experience that some of our malpractice settlements and verdicts led to major changes in policy and care at Vanderbilt and other Nashville hospitals. These changes in policy and procedure save lives. In conclusion, the cost of litigation is necessary to benefit the public because it helps to ensure that negligent doctors and hospitals are held accountable for their actions. Litigation also helps to protect the rights of injured patients and to prevent future malpractice. Additionally, litigation forces doctors and hospitals to be held accountable.