Kansas City Personal Injury Law Blog

A previous post here discussed how a young woman died shortly after being misdiagnosed at a walk-in clinic near a college campus. A jury later determined that the student's family was entitled to $9 million due to the clinic's medical malpractice. The tragic story raises questions about walk-in care clinics in general. On the one hand, they are great when a person needs a doctor, but a primary care physician is not available, such as when the need arises after hours or on a weekend. Moreover, these clinics also can treat many of the same medical issues that emergency rooms treat, but at a fraction of the cost.

However, if there is a downside to these clinics, it is that they do not always have the same equipment, or are not subject to the same regulations and oversight, as are traditional emergency rooms. Moreover, walk-in clinics usually are staffed by primary care physicians, or even by nurse practitioners or a physician's assistant, as opposed to doctors and nurses who specialize in treating emergencies. These differences have led at least one major organization of physicians to strongly encourage urgent care clinics to not in any respect refer to themselves as emergency treatment centers.

How many times have you been to see a doctor in the last five years? Chances are you have sought medical examination or treatment on multiple occasions. Each time, you logically expect that your doctor will be able to diagnose your condition or recommend a specialist who can if she or she is unable to do so. 

In any case, you have a right to reasonably expect that any and all medical workers who care for you act according to accepted safety standards and quality protocol. There is a slight difference between safety and quality. The former refers to hazards and potential injury, the latter pertains to effective and efficient service. You deserve both. Not only that, but you might wind up in worse condition than you were to start if a medical worker's negligence causes you illness or injury.

The term "aspiration" refers to the act of a person accidentally swallowing reflux, saliva or the like. Normally, this is not a major ordeal and is rather common. Take, for example, a person who simply takes a swallow of water and it goes down "the wrong pipe." However, when a person is sick, elderly or in bad health, aspiration can have deadly results. For example, a person receiving food through a tube may be at risk for aspirating, as can anyone who is lying in bed for a prolonged period of time.

Usually, patients who are aspirating will slowly accumulate fluid in their lungs as small amounts from time to time head down the windpipe. Eventually, this will lead to pneumonia, which is a potentially life-threatening condition since the lungs can no longer process oxygen properly.

According to a recent report which analyzed figures from 2018, insurance companies in Missouri paid losses on 179 medical malpractice claims for a total of almost $52.5 million dollars. This was actually a 4% drop in loss payments when compared to 2017. By contrast, Kansas had 144 payouts. However, the total paid was $25.74 million, which marked a 3% increase.

Across the country carriers paid just over $4 billion in medical malpractice claims. The vast majority, over 95% of these payouts, came following a pre-trial settlement of the claim. Nationwide statistics revealed some other interesting facts about the state of medical malpractice claims in this country as well. Almost one out three of all payouts, 30%, came in the wake of a patient's untimely death. Additionally, almost 19% of payouts ended after a patient suffered a major and permanent injury due to alleged malpractice, and about 18.5% of payouts followed a significant injury.