The Patient Advocate

Some Hospitals Deny Responsibility for Medical Malpractice in Their Own Emergency Departments.

Most people who visit a hospital emergency department believe the physicians, nurses and physician assistants who treat them are employees of the hospital. However, that’s often not the case. And worse yet, if a doctor or nurse in the emergency department makes a serious mistake and harms a patient, the hospital may try to deny responsibility for the acts of their hospital staff.

Residents of Western Pennsylvania are fortunate to have access to some of the best doctors and nurses in the nation. However, a recent national survey which measures preventable injuries and illnesses suggests several area hospitals, including two of the region’s largest, fall short of expectations when it comes to patient safety. The Spring 2020 survey results were released on April 30, 2020.  Nearly every hospital in the Western Pennsylvania region received an “A” or “B” grade.  Two hospitals in the region received a “C”.

Human Papillomavirus, better known as HPV, is a sexually transmitted infection that affects approximately 79 million mostly young Americans. In recent years, health care providers and researchers have led a concerted effort to stop the spread of HPV and for good reason – not only is HPV the most common infection among Americans, HPV infection causes several types of cancers, including cervical cancer, anal cancer, and cancers of the throat, base of the tongue and tonsils. According to the CDC, every year in the United States, HPV causes 33,700 cases of cancer in men and women.

Neither celebrity or character protect patients from medical malpractice. Note that this matter was settled privately and it is only because of hard working reporters that the public now has been informed. Since most serious cases are settled under confidentiality restrictions there is an ongoing silence about many careless acts resulting in many catastrophically injured patients.

The Constitution is the bedrock of our American society.  Not a day goes by without many of us benefiting from one or more of the sacred amendments to our constitution, such as the freedoms of speech or religion, or the right to bear arms.  At Lupetin & Unatin, we are privileged to work every day to advance an important right granted to each of us under the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 6 of the Constitution of Pennsyvlania – the right to a jury trial. 

In the February 11, 2016 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine the first perspective article was titled “A World Free of Polio – The Final Steps”. Frankly I was shocked by what I read. Beginning in the 1980’s, a series of lawsuits were filed against the Lederle drug company, which was owned by American Cyanamid at the time. These lawsuits were filed first in state and then in federal court and all were based on the proposition that an innocent person, either a vaccine recipient infant or a family member of a recipient, had acquired paralytic polio as a consequence of having been inoculated with the Sabin oral attenuated vaccine or coming in contact with infants who were vaccinated.