New York Injury Lawyers Blog

December 26, 2018

After Committing Medical Malpractice in Another State, Doctors Can Still Practice in New York

Doctors accused of medical malpractice or other unprofessional conduct in another state may still be able to practice in New York State. In a report analyzing 250 doctors accused of professional misconduct, USA Today found that doctors accused of running pill mills, were found liable for medical malpractice, and engaging in inappropriate relationships with their patients, are still practicing medicine – just in a different state. In most states, including New York, a doctor who voluntarily surrenders his license in a different state is not automatically disqualified from practicing medicine.

Unlike most states, however, New York even allows some doctors with felony convictions to practice medicine. Under New York’s licensing scheme for doctors, a medical board is allowed to approve or deny a doctor’s license to practice medicine in the state based on their own criteria. In circumstances where a doctor voluntarily relinquishes his or her license in another state, there is rarely a “paper trail” describing any misconduct. According to LoHud.com, some states do not track allegations of misconduct against doctors and other states do not make the information available to licensing boards in other states. This haphazard system undoubtedly endangers these doctor’s patients.

December 22, 2018

Patient Safety Ratings at New York Hospitals Drop

by Gallivan & Gallivan

Continuing the state’s decade-long decline, New York ranked a dismal 48^th in overall patient safety. The rankings, which are released twice each year by the non-profit organization Leapfrog Group, compile data from hospitals across the country and measure the rate of medical errors, infections and injuries, and patient satisfaction, to determine each hospital’s ranking. Since Leapfrog Group began ranking patient safety in 2012, New York has fallen from 40^th worst state in the country to 48^th. In the tri-state area, Connecticut also ranks low for patient safety while New Jersey ranks among the best states in the country.

According to Leapfrog, the worst hospitals in the state are located in New York City and upstate. In fact, five of the 20 hospitals across the country that received an “F” from Leapfrog are located in the five boroughs. In the Hudson Valley, the hospital results were mixed. Here are Leapfrog’s patient safety ratings for the local-area hospitals:

A

December 20, 2018

Mixed Results for Hospital Efforts to Lower Rate of Bedsores

by Gallivan & Gallivan

The rate of bedsores, or pressure injuries, declined 23 percent between 2010 and 2014. However, the decline in bedsores across the country is mostly caused by a reduction in early-stage sores, according to a new report by Health Affairs. According to the study, early-stage bedsores comprised 96 percent of the nationwide reduction in bedsore rates. The rate of late-stage bedsores, which are more harmful and expensive, has mostly remained constant over the past decade, according to the published research.

Bedsores are one of the most common and preventable medical errors occurring in hospitals across the country. Bedsores, also called pressure injuries or pressure sores, can be excruciatingly painful and may not heal for months or years. In many cases, this preventable medical error does not heal – an estimated 60,000 Americans die each year from bedsores, according to Health Affairs. For these reasons, federal and state governments across the country have cracked down on hospitals and nursing homes with high rates of pressure ulcers. Beginning in 2008, Medicare began paying less to hospitals with high rates of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers. States across the country have also heightened enforcement by tracking the rates of pressure ulcers at hospitals across the state and imposing various penalties for hospitals with above-average rates of pressure ulcers.

November 29, 2018

Amid Boom in Construction and Worker Accidents, NYC Construction Safety Law Is Ignored

by Gallivan & Gallivan

Concerned over the growing rate of construction accidents, Mayor de Blasio and City Hall passed a new set of safety regulations on the construction industry last year. However, according to a news report this law is being ignored by the construction industry. As the rate of accidents and deaths in the construction industry reach a record high this year, safety advocates hope that the government steps up enforcement of the law or pursues further legislation to protect construction workers.

Under the safety legislation passed by the city, construction workers must undergo additional training – a 10-hour class should have been completed by March 1 of this year, with an additional 30-hours of safety training required by December 1. Upon completion of the training, construction workers will receive a “Site Safety Training” card that must be brought with them to their construction site each day. However, despite the city’s noble efforts to address a real problem in New York, injuries and deaths in the construction industry have only grown this year.

November 15, 2018

Marijuana Friendly States See Uptick in Car Crashes, Fatalities

by Gallivan & Gallivan

As America blazes its path towards marijuana legalization, federal agencies and traffic safety experts are worried that the full ramifications of legalizing the once-illicit drug remain unknown. The latest smoke signal that states should study the matter further came out last week when the federal government reported a 6 percent increase in highway crashes across states that legalized the drug. The previous study, which focused on the first three states to legalize the drug for recreational purposes, found a 5.2 percent increase in highway crashes.

Unlike alcohol, where a breathalyzer can easily and objectively determine whether a person is too intoxicated to drive, the push for an objective sobriety measurement for cannabis remains elusive. Currently, the police are able to perform a blood test and locate THC in the blood of the driver, however, because THC can stay in a person’s system for days or even weeks, the test lacks the ability to measure whether the driver was intoxicated while behind the wheel.

November 13, 2018

Jury Hands Life Sentence to “Butcher Surgeon” for Medical Malpractice

by Gallivan & Gallivan

A Texan surgeon is going to spend the rest of his life in prison because of his horrific incompetence on the operating table. The almost unbelievable case follows Doctor Christopher Duntsch who managed to maim 32 of his patients. Nicknamed by local newspapers as “Dr. Death,” the criminal conviction shows how a broken system allowed a deranged, drug-addled, and incompetent doctor to harm so many of his patients.

After studying medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Duntsch moved to Dallas where he worked at Minimally Invasive Spine Institute, a $600,000-a-year job that only lasted a couple weeks. After leaving the institute, the deranged doctor moved to Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano. Less than a year into his stint at the prestigious hospital, colleagues begin to describe surgeries gone horrifically wrong. Concerned about excessive blood loss, one surgeon told The Dallas Morning News that he grabbed Duntsch’s medical instruments to stop him from operating. Another doctor described one surgery as “pathetic on what should have been a fairly easy case.”

November 5, 2018

New York Indicts Doctors Who Prescribed Millions of Opiates

by Gallivan & Gallivan

New York charged five doctors for prescribing millions of unnecessary opiates to their patients. State prosecutors describe doctors who led their patients down the dark path of addiction, and in some cases even death, solely for personal profit. The criminal complaint against the five doctors, which lists several other co-conspirators, including a White Plains pharmacist, is part of a string of lawsuits meant to hold reckless doctors, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical companies responsible for the opioid epidemic that seems to only grow worse each year.

According to New York prosecutors, these five doctors’ malpractice was so brazen that addicts from across the Northeast came to their clinics. Carl Anderson, one of the indicted doctors, ran a pill mill in Staten Island with “lines at all hours of the night,” according to The New York Times. Many of the doctor’s patients died from overdoses, including two of Anderson’s employees. According to the indictment, the crooked doctor received millions of dollars for the oxycodone prescriptions he carelessly wrote to his patients. Another doctor, Dante Cubangbang, ran a pill mill in Queens that wrote an astounding 3.3 million opiate prescriptions over a three-year period, the highest in New York State. A Manhattan psychiatrist prescribed 600,000 oxycodone pills to just 200 patients, warning them not to fill their prescriptions at chain pharmacies to avoid scrutiny.

November 3, 2018

Maternal Mortality Rates Skyrocket Across Country

by Gallivan & Gallivan

Across the United States, women giving birth are now almost three times more likely to die than they were just three decades ago. In a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States now leads the developed world in maternity mortality. Tragically, the majority of these deaths fall upon poor women and women of color. Perhaps even worse, the study shows that the majority of these deaths are completely preventable. With the increased attention on infant mortality rates in recent years, it appears medical professionals and researchers need to focus their efforts on improving the health of both the pregnant mother and the infant.

The wide-ranging report published by the government agency surveyed nine states to identify the characteristics and causes of maternal deaths, and consequently provide recommendations for reducing the nation’s shamefully high mortality rate. After collecting data from the states, the CDC reports that almost 60 percent of maternal deaths are preventable. The most common causes of death among all Americans were hemorrhaging, cardiovascular and coronary conditions, and infections.

November 2, 2018

After Tragic Limo Crash Kills 20 in New York, Sen. Schumer Demand More Regulations

by Gallivan & Gallivan

After a tragic limo crash killed 20 in upstate New York, Senator Chuck Schumer is renewing his call for stronger government regulations and oversight. Similar to other limousine offerings across the country, the Ford Expedition involved in the accident was modified into a limousine by cutting the SUV into two parts and then extended. Safety advocates have long warned that this process requires removing necessary safety features from the vehicle, including airbags and side rollover pillars, and imperils limo passengers. Now the cause of the deadliest traffic accident in a decade, according to The New York Times, transportation safety advocates and politicians are hoping their pleas for oversight will no longer remain unanswered.

According to New York politicians, the stretched Ford Expedition should not have been used on the night of the crash. The limo had repeatedly failed state inspections, including one just last month. The numerous violations included a faulty braking system, which had taken the twenty-passenger Ford Expedition off the road twice. Further, the driver of the limousine, Scott Lisinicchia, did not possess a valid license to operate the limo. Lisinicchia also died in the crash, which killed all seventeen passengers and two individuals parked on the side of the road. Authorities have charged the owner of the limo business with negligent homicide. The business owner pled not guilty and said the DOT deemed the limo roadworthy only a week before the crash and described the Lisinicchia as a “reliable employee” to CNN.

October 11, 2018

With Rise of Superbugs, Hospitals and Doctors Vow an Aggressive Response

by Gallivan & Gallivan

In response to an increase in superbugs, medical centers are taking an aggressive stance by implementing strict hygiene standards and educating patients about antibiotic resistance. Superbugs are bacterial infections resistant to medical treatment, such as antibiotics. A global increase in the number of antibiotic prescriptions coupled with a lack of new antibiotics produced in the last few decades created strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, superbugs (and antibiotic resistance, more generally) present one of the world’s “most pressing public health problems.”

Filled with infectious diseases and compromised immune systems, hospitals are a breeding ground for superbugs and their patients are uniquely susceptible. Thankfully, hospitals are stepping up and setting new standards to prevent the spread of infection. In an article by the Wall Street Journal, several hospitals detail new procedures meant to improve hygiene and stop germs from spreading. In addition to routine hand washing, medical staff at these hospitals also clean stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, IV poles and pumps, bed railings, and computer keyboards. Stethoscopes, in a surprise to hospital staff interviewed by the WSJ, usually carry the same number of germs as a doctor’s hands after just a single physical examination.