Philadelphia Injury Attorney Blog

As an experienced Philadelphia personal injury and Philadelphia car accident lawyer, I have literally dealt with thousands of chiropractic care cases involving injured clients. For the most part, although many people and defense attorneys consider chiropractors to be “quacks" or “light and magic shows", mostly I have found that chiropractic manipulation proffered by the properly trained and caring chiropractor can be most beneficial.

In fact, I regularly require chiropractic manipulations and have benefited more therefrom than traditional physical therapy. Unfortunately on the other side of the coin remains the fact that many chiropractor’s offices are nothing more than accident mills operated by businessman or chiropractor more interested in making money rather than offering proper patient care and manipulation.

The underlying basis for chiropractic is the belief is that all physical diseases are the result of misplaced spinal bones and that subluxations of spinal vertebrae cause disease by interfering with the flow of nerve energy from the brain to the body=s tissues. Accordingly, spinal adjustments by a properly trained chiropractor are technically supposed to restore vertebrae to their proper places and allow brain energy to heal the diseased condition. Obviously in order to properly treat a disease or condition, it is completely necessary to have an accurate medical diagnosis as to what constitutes treatment. Many chiropractors administer spinal manipulation without first accurately making a proper medical diagnosis utilizing confirming x-rays, CT scans, or MRI studies and many types of chiropractic medical malpractice claims evolve when a patient sustains an injury or aggravation by manipulation of the musculoskeletal system or the spine where the patient suffers from an illness, disease, or other injury that was not diagnosed. For example, if there is a herniated disc with potential impingement on the spinal nerves and the chiropractor fails to diagnose this condition and engages in aggressive treatment that worsens the condition instead of prescribing immediate medical intervention or diagnosis, that chiropractor may have caused more harm to the patient and may be guilty of chiropractic malpractice. Many times chiropractors don't fully explain the situation to the client or patient and the patient receives treatment or some part of treatment without the informed consent necessary to make an educated decision. Sometimes cervical manipulation or a neck adjustment technique can be more devastating than helpful and can lead to a stroke. A neck adjustment by a chiropractor can cause a dissection of vertebrae or the carotid artery resulting in stroke. The number of chiropractic malpractice and manipulations that report in strokes is vastly under reported in medical literature due to the fact that many patients suffer irreparable brain damage and cannot remember the chiropractic manipulation. All manipulations carry the risk of life threatening accidents and it is important that if you are receiving chiropractic care to do your homework and make sure that you are not treating in an accident mill just focused on volume rather than quality care.

If you have sustained an injury that you believe was caused by chiropractic negligence or malpractice, the experienced and skilled Philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys at Reiff and Bily are always available to offer a free, no obligation consultation and work with the finest medical and chiropractic experts throughout the nation. We always offer a no recovery, no fee guarantee. For more information, contact us toll free at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

For over thirty years, I have worked closely with the medical community in my capacity as a lawyer investigating and litigating cases involving closed head traumas and mild to severe brain injuries, as well as intracranial hemorrhages. Many times individuals who do not possess proper medical insurance do not receive adequate or proper screening after an accident or violent impact to their head. Left untreated, a mild TBI or intracranial hemorrhage can have a considerable impact in the reduction of one’s quality of life and can many times lead to death if improperly diagnosed.

Studies and statistics have indicated that African-American and Hispanic children are less likely than Caucasian children to receive cranial CT scans in emergency departments following minor head trauma according to a study presented at the 2011 American Academy of Pediatrics national conference. Many physicians that I have discussed this situation with claim that those who sustain a minor head trauma “are probably at low risk anyway" for a clinically important brain injury. However, one’s socioeconomic status or lack of insurance or ignorance of the insurance and billing systems should not stand in the way of a proper diagnosis and the safe practice of medicine. Many times an impact to the head is the result of a car accident, product defect, or other type of negligence, and third party’s and third party insurance companies may be responsible for medical bills and resulting financial, emotional, and payment of medical bills. Simply stated, I have noted that many individuals contact our office with symptoms of traumatic brain injury and closed head trauma and have not received proper medical treatment because they were afraid that they would be responsible for paying the bills and did not have adequate personal medical insurance. In fact, many hospitals and physicians will not treat these people unless there is a letter of protection from a lawyer representing them or the lawyer’s office has done the ground work to secure funding for the diagnostic testing. What we do know is that individuals with a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury have a much lower health-related quality of life at times compared to others. It is important to immediately diagnose and effectively treat a brain injury.

Continue reading "Why Is It That Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries and Intracranial Hemorrhages Are Not So Readily Diagnosed. Is It A Patient Or Medical Issue?" »

The City of Philadelphia is currently dealing with an EMS crisis where lives are being put at risk due to the fact that EMS units are still arriving late to calls nearly 40% of the time. It is an excepted standard that EMS units should arrive at the scene of an emergency in less than 9 minutes. Several years ago, City of Philadelphia audits indicated that EMS units were only achieving the standard 60% of the time. City Controller, Alan Butkovitz, stated “The City is putting lives at risk by failing to do all that it can to have EMS units arrive on time. The response time is still well below the 90% industry benchmark." Butkovitz stated that a major factor contributing to EMS inability to arrive on time is the overwhelming demand on the EMS system along with an inadequate number of paramedics. The City Controller made a number of recommendations to address this situation. However, of paramount concern is that the City of Philadelphia and Fire Department must take all necessary and reasonable steps to improve EMS response time and to increase the number of paramedics available to staff EMS vehicles.

More and more businesses and health services are supplying medication offering injections or diagnosing and treating patients with doctors who really are not medical doctors but rather nurses with Ph.D.’s. Often these Ph.D. “doctors" are paid less than medical doctors. While there is no doubt that there are advanced practice nurses with Ph.D.’s that have excellent and fine medical skills, this is not always explained to individuals who seek medical advice or treatment and assume that the same is being provided by a medical doctor. Many clinics have nurse Ph.D.’s who are identified as doctors performing medical exams, and as an experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney for over thirty years, I predict that this is something that will become more and more common in a tightened economy and as big business has a greater role in providing healthcare.

Interestingly enough, researchers show that the new Ph.D. degrees maintained by nurses who call themselves doctors have not brought higher fees to these mostly lesser paid providers from insurers from seeing patients. Certainly and understandably one can understand the frustration from physicians with medical degrees who have spent years of intensive study only to have confusion over the use of the term doctor and services performed by someone using the term doctor.

As an experienced Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorney who has been intimately involved in claims of malpractice against the healthcare industry for over three decades, I believe that clear communications must be made to the consumer about the correct educational background and medical degree of the “doctor" administering the services and that legislators ought to be more involved in defining the roles of these healthcare providers.

If you or a loved one has been injured as the result of medical malpractice, contact one of our experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers for a free, no obligation consultation. For more information, contact us toll free at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

According to a recent story published in the Pennsylvania Business Journal, Pennsylvania ambulatory surgery facilities submitted 502 medication error reports to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority over a five and a half year period through the end of last year. Unfortunately, there is a lack of medical literature accurately quantifying or addressing medical errors that occur in ambulatory surgical facilities and according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of Health Statistics and Research, Pennsylvania had 265 ambulatory surgery facilities which performed more than 960 procedures between July 1, 2000 and June 30, 2009.

Ambulatory surgery facilities are often utilized for general surgical procedures including but not limited to ophthalmologic endoscopies, colonoscopies, orthopedic, gynecological, urologic, and cosmetic procedures.

Recently a national quality forum approved for endorsement a list of 29 serious reportable events in health care. All Pennsylvania hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, and birthing centers are subject to reporting requirements under Act 13 and must submit with the authorities any “serious event incidents".

Unfortunately, as an experienced Pennsylvania surgical and medical malpractice attorney for over three decades I all too often investigate and prosecute claims of negligence and malpractice involving outpatient or ambulatory surgical centers. I am concerned that many times Philadelphia and Pennsylvania regulatory establishments fail patients who suffer harm or unfortunately wrongful death in an ambulatory surgery center. There appears to be a systematic weakness in Pennsylvania’s enforcement of healthcare facility laws with regard to application or enforcement against many ambulatory surgery facilities. In the pure world, ambulatory surgical facility should offer high quality cost effective alternatives to in-patient hospital surgical services. Almost 90% of ASC’s are privately owned by physicians and are increasingly jointly partnering with hospitals.

Unfortunately many ambulatory surgery centers do not meet federal safety standards which could lead to serious and catastrophic consequences for patients. Many times we have seen single use items reused and medical supplies with expired expiration dates used. Common types of errors cited in Pennsylvania ambulatory surgical facilities include drug omissions, administration of the wrong drug, failing to monitor errors, documenting allergies, confusion or mixup involving ophthalmology products of different pharmacological categories, differentiating lookalike products, operation on the wrong body part or wrong patient, surgical site infections, wrong drug errors, and failure to prophylactically deliver antibiotics.



Continue reading "Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Lawyers Query The Safety Of Outpatient and Ambulatory Patient Surgery Centers Versus Inpatient Hospital Surgery Centers" »

On Monday, May 3, 2009 the Atlanta Journal Constitution featured an article noting that medical mistakes create unhappy realities. In the article, the following mistakes were highlighted: A surgical team at Northside Hospital was supposed to remove one of the patient’s breasts; however, performed a double mastectomy because of a mistake. At an Atlanta medical center, a surgeon drilled on the wrong side of a patient’s head before discovering the error. It also noted that at several Georgia Hospital’s doctors circumcised the wrong baby and doctors mistakenly operated on the wrong hand, knee, hip, leg and other body parts.

At the Philadelphia medical malpractice law firm of Reiff & Bily, we have noted that despite protocols and initiatives by a number of medical groups, we receive many calls to investigate and prosecute claims for wrong site surgeries, surgical sponges left inside individuals, as well as removal of body parts that were not intended to be removed. We have seen many cases where the doctor simply admits to the patient that he made an error but in many cases we see medical “cover-ups". How often these incidences occur in hospitals in Pennsylvania and hospitals throughout the country is a well kept secret.

Last year there were 76 reports of wrong site incidences filed with statewide watchdogs in Pennsylvania. To the credit of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and as a result of the efforts of trial lawyers, an organization was formed focusing, collecting, analyzing and informing the public about patient safety issues. They suggested that patients take an active role to prevent medical errors and some tips to protect yourself are as follows:

1. Talk with doctors - Make sure you, your doctor and surgeon agree on what is to be done.

2. Read paperwork - When signing consent forms and working with schedulers make sure that they all have the correct information about the surgery, including which side is to be operated on.

Continue reading "Doctors Make Mistakes Increasingly Resulting In Unhappy Reality For Patients" »

A recent study by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions has indicated that diagnostic misadventures represent a much larger source of preventable health problems and deaths than many of the more popular targets. If fact, David Newman-Toker, M.D., Ph.D. and Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D. reported that misdiagnosis accounts for an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 deaths per year and that legal claims for diagnostic errors defined as diagnoses that are missed, wrong or delayed are nearly twice as common as claims for medication errors. (news article)

Placing the focus on reducing diagnostic errors will emphasize the reduction of larger "system" failures that affect medical practices overall. What this means is that increased focus will move away from the model that chastises the malpractice for individual physicians to one that focuses on improving the medical system as a whole which should in the long run improve diagnostic accuracy, as well as the cost effectiveness of care.

The Philadelphia medical malpractice law firm of Reiff & Bily believe that a systematic approach and solutions adopted by hospitals and doctors requiring physicians to follow a procedural check list that emphasizes proper diagnosis will result in a decrease of catastrophic injuries and deaths.

Continue reading "Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Lawyer Notes That The New Focus Of Patient Safety Experts Is On Diagnostic Errors" »

Medical doctors are supposed to be the expert in their field of medicine. It is always possible that those experts are not nearly as qualified as they should be. Many of these professionals often turn out to be better marketers than practitioners. Medical misdiagnosis, especially missed cancer diagnosis, will likely lead to a missed cure and often results in untimely death. The key to proper treatment is to catch problems early, and missing it prevents proper treatment. The Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorneys at the Philadelphia law firm of Reiff & Bily have been researching and handling numerous misdiagnosis cases since 1979.

Medical misdiagnosis can occur from a failure to properly identify lumps, failure to order proper scans, failure to properly evaluate or handle test results or scans, failure to follow up on results or refer to a specialist for further testing, failure to order a biopsy, misclassifying the type of tumor, or mistaking a cancerous tumor as being benign (non-cancerous) or a non-cancerous tumor as being malignant (cancerous). When a patient complains about certain symptoms, it is possible that their doctor will ignore the complaint due to previous medical history (such as a history of a certain type of pain). Ignoring complaints could lead to a misdiagnosis since the doctor is quick to dismiss complaints and actually ignores the symptoms. Misdiagnosis and professional negligence can cause delayed treatment that can greatly impact the chances of survival and the quality of life of the patient.

Continue reading "Was My Medical Condition Diagnosed By A Marketing “Expert" Or A Doctor?" »