Personal Injury Law

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

American Medical News is reporting on encouraging new developments in the battle to reduce medical errors by doctors and hospitals. Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers have worked for decades to raise awareness of medical mistakes that should have been prevented. By assisting the patient victims and their families, we strive to ensure that the problems receive redress and medical professionals are encouraged to improve the quality of their care by ensuring that their errors are recognized.

Local Illinois doctors are now taking another step which may help to raise awareness of patient safety in another way. The University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago is planning to work on a three-year project to help evaluate whether the center?s medical error model (known as the ?seven pillars? approach) is appropriate for other hospitals. Advocates for this type of approach explained that the model has allowed the identification of 56 cases of medical harm with 55 of them settled out of court.

Involved doctors hope that the effort will ultimately improve patient safety in more area locations, sharing, ?We want to take what we?ve been doing for the last few years and try to roll it out to nine other hospitals in the Chicago area.?

Specifically, the project will examine the new model?s effect on the overall number and severity of medical errors, the reductions in the errors, and their compensation costs. Within 18 months the project is planned to expand to four local hospitals, but results will not be ready for publication for about two years.

The new project is being funded through a federal grant, but two local doctors involved in the project are adding to the effort with personal funds. Two UIC doctors pledged $100,000 to help share a new documentary that explains the death of a young teen after a preventable medical error. It shares the toll that these errors have on patients and their families.

Please Click Here to read more about this important step in improving medical care at local hospitals.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on October 12, 2010 (boomark / email).