Medical Malpractice

• Virginia Fails At Policing Its Doctors

  Staff Writer | May 10, 2006 1:22 PM | 0 CommentsVirginia Beach, Chesapeake & Suffolk, VA

  Virginia continues to have a lower rate of serious disciplinary actions against its doctors than most states. According to the non-profit research group, Public Citizen, the rate of serious disciplinary actions against doctors in Virginia has fallen consistently over the last four years. The organization ranked Virginia 34th in the nation for 2005, down from 33rd in 2004, 27th...

• Virginia Medical Negligence Law Now Requires Certification

  John Cooper | April 21, 2006 2:02 PM | 0 CommentsVirginia Beach, Chesapeake & Suffolk, VA

  Virginia recently changed its laws related to medical malpractice cases. The new law requires that the lawyer certify that he has an expert witness in the appropriate specialty who will testify that the defendant violated the standard of care before serving the lawsuit. This law is actually a good thing. Now, there will be fewer lawsuits filed by lawyers who are not really experienced medical...

• Medical Mistakes: Worse Than We Thought?

  Staff Writer | April 20, 2006 9:32 PM | 0 CommentsVirginia Beach, Chesapeake & Suffolk, VA

  Five years ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a startling report that acted as awake-up call to hospitals, health care providers, and patients: As many as 98,000people die each year in hospitals in the United States from infections, drug mix-ups,and other mistakes--mistakes that could have been prevented. Two of the authors of that report recently published a follow-up article in...

• The Most Dangerous Days of The Year Are??

  John Cooper | April 12, 2006 10:33 PM | 0 CommentsVirginia Beach, Chesapeake & Suffolk, VA

  Monday, April 3, 2006 was a dangerous day on the road. Every Monday following the conversion back to daylight savings time in the Spring is a heavy day for traffic accidents. The problem is that everyone is an hour short of sleep and in a rush. This results in a statistical increase in the number of car wrecks. I hope you made it through the day okay.Another dangerous time is to be in the...

• Whose Side Are They On?

  Staff Writer | April 24, 2006 4:33 PM | 0 CommentsVirginia Beach, Chesapeake & Suffolk, VA

  The thought of a surgeon taking a scalpel to the wrong limb or patient sends chills down the spine of anyone who has been admitted to the hospital. Eighty-four cases of what's known in the business as "wrong site surgery" were reported in the United States last year. But that's just the "tip of the iceberg" because many hospitals across the country aren't obligated to account for such blunders...