The American Medical Association and many physicians have been lobbying for medical malpractice reform for quite some time now. They tried to have medical malpractice reform included in the recently passed healthcare reform bill, but were not successful. Their stance is that medical malpractice caps would reduce healthcare costs because they would reduce the practice of “defensive medicine.” But a nonpartisan government office says this is not the case.

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Errors committed by medical professionals are much harder to stomach than those made by people in any other profession. Doctors are the ones we depend on to keep us healthy, and to make us healthy when we’re ill. They are the last ones we expect to make us sicker, or, worst of all, to kill us through negligence, ignorance, or flat out error. Every doctor, upon graduation from medical school takes an oath to fulfill their obligation to the best of their ability. Doctors, as human beings, cannot be expected to be perfect, or to never make mistakes. But there are times when those mistakes stem from carelessness, or the desire to protect themselves while they are treating patients.

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When most of us go to a medical facility for a procedure, we expect to come home feeling better than when we went in. We expect to have our broken bones set, our cancer treated and our faulty hearts repaired. What we don’t expect is to come home infected with the Hepatitis C virus.

But that’s exactly was has happened to thousands of former patients at Rose Medical Center in Denver, Colorado and The Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs. Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York and Christus St. John Hospital in Nassau Bay, Texas are also under investigation for possible hepatitis C exposure from Kristen Parker.
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Do you still wear that awesome pair of MC Hammer pants you bought at the Chess King? Or, maybe you are still sporting a mullet, mall bangs, or have a line shaved into the sides of your head… Do you still watch Thirtysomething, religiously? You can’t get enough of the Golden Girls? Do you find yourself humming, “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into my Car,” or perhaps you have gotten in to an argument defending “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” as the definitive rap against which all others are to be judged. If so, you may be stuck in 1988. Do you know what else is? The non-economic damage caps for medical negligence cases in the State of Colorado.

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On the heels of the highly publicized story of Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins’ near fatal accidental overdose of Heaparin, a newly released study in the April issue of Pediatrics journal, claims that nearly one of every fifteen children suffer from a medical error, accidental overdose or bad drug reaction while hospitalized.

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There are an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 people that die in U.S. hospitals each year as a result of medical errors. Medical errors are one of the Nation’s foremost reasons of death along with car accidents, breast cancer and AIDS.
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A new state law called The Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act requires doctors moving to Colorado, and soon all doctors, to disclose any medical malpractice judgments on a website.
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On Thursday, December 20th, Ralph Vincent Martin was sentenced to 60 days in jail for unlawful sexual contact with a patient at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver.
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On February 19, 2006, 24-year-old Emily Rice was in a drunken-driving crash which caused her spleen to rupture and liver slashed. Rice later bled to death in her Denver cell.
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A seemingly innocuous proposed bill has recently come under attack by our very own Rocky Mountain News. (To read the editorial, click here). Senate Bill 248 is a bill that will exponentially help consumers and the medical community. It’s aimed at education and informed choice in the realm of medical malpractice insurance. SB 248 allows for a hearing in front of the Colorado insurance commission, upon request, only when an insurance carrier with a 65% or greater market share requests a global rate increase of 5% or more. What does this mean? It means that the larger medical malpractice insurers in the state would be required to actually inform its insureds if it decides to increase rates by 5% or more. This is a good thing because these measures, if implemented, would promote transparency and the free flow of information sharing. It ensures that doctors are informed when COPIC wants to increase rates of 5% or more and ensures that the increase is fair and reasonable given changing conditions. SB 248 protects doctors from unilateral rate increases not in line with the needs of Colorado’s medical community.
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