Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog

Almost every human being will, by the end of his lifetime, experience a visit to an intensive care unit. In the United States, on any given day, you can find up to 90,000 people in intensive care units. Those staggering numbers demand fine-tuned and precise care from medical care professionals, who are often stressed to breaking point. In more and more hospitals around the country however, a simple checklist is helping deliver such care, saving lives.

The checklist is the brainchild of Dr. Peter Pronovost, and is familiar to Indiana medical malpractice attorneys, doctors and nurses everywhere. Several hospitals around the country have reported substantial success in reducing the number of medical errors made in intensive care units with the use of the checklist. However, for a very long time, it remained impractical to assume that a simple checklist could help reduce medical errors and actually save lives.

In 2001, Dr. Peter Pronovost, a critical care specialist at Johns Hopkins developed a checklist aimed at preventing central line-associated bloodstream infections. The checklist was simple.
• Wash hands with soap
• Clean skin with chlorhexidine
• Place a sterile drape over patient
• Wear sterile mask, gown, and gloves
• Place a sterile dressing over the site after a catheter has been inserted

Continue reading "The List That Saves Lives" »

Earlier this year, Johns Hopkins announced the establishment of a dedicated patient safety Institute thanks to a generous gift by Michael C. Armstrong, chairman of the Johns Hopkins Board of Trustees. Indiana medical malpractice attorneys are also pleased to note that renowned patient safety expert and checklist guru Peter Pronovost has been named director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins.

The need for a patient safety institute like this is dire. More than ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine published its groundbreaking To Err Is Human report, which indicated that as many as 98,000 Americans die in hospitals every year from medical errors. In the years since the publication of the report, little progress has been made in reducing the occurrence of medical errors, and preventing the number of people who die in hospitals every year from these errors. Approximately 100,000 deaths occur from hospital-acquired infections, while more than 800,000 die as a result of diagnostic errors. Thousands more die due to errors in communication and teamwork failures. These deaths are almost always preventable.

Continue reading "Safety Institute Established to Reduce Preventable Medical Errors" »

INDIANAPOLIS – Worker safety is on the front of everyone’s mind in a new cooperative agreement between Fred Weber, Inc and the Indiana Department of Labor (IDOL). The agreement gives IDOL permission to review and approve Fred Weber, Inc’s written safety program for its workers on the I-69 construction project to begin in Greene County later this year. The collaboration will remain in place for two years.

The I-69 extension is a small part of the controversial and ambitious highway project that will ultimately stretch from Indianapolis to Evansville and beyond. The project will take many years and require hundreds of construction workers. The 11-mile stretch of highway effected by this agreement is a section running into Greene County, south of Bloomington.

The contract requires Fred Weber to keep worker injuries and illnesses to a rate that is 13% lower than industry averages. It also requires that any work performed above six feet in height will be done utilizing safety harness and fall prevention equipment.

Continue reading "Greene County Construction Workers’ Safety Improved by Agreement" »

A documentary that uses the infamous Stella Liebeck - McDonald's hot coffee case of the 90s to illustrate the increasingly restricted access to justice for ordinary Americans, is garnering rave reviews. For Indiana personal injury attorneys and indeed anyone who believes that big business in the United States have succeeded in limiting public access to civil justice, it's beyond encouraging that people are responding to the truth.

The documentary, Hot Coffee begins with the truth about what happened to Stella Liebeck. Most people who have heard about the McDonald's case, don't know the half of it. Liebeck suffered severe third-degree burns when coffee from a McDonald's cup spilt on her lap at a drive-through. She claimed $800 in medical expenses from McDonald's, but the company refused to pay. Her lawsuit finally ended with a jury awarding her close to $3 million in damages, most of which were punitive damages. For most Americans, this is where the story ends. However, the fact is that another judge reduced the damages, and Liebeck finally settled with McDonald's out of court for a much lower sum.

Continue reading "Hot Coffee Documentary Throws Some Well-Deserved Light on Reality of Tort Reform" »

Indianapolis – Seven Indiana children died between May 30 and June 13 this year. This is the equivalent of one child every other day. Making their deaths even more tragic is the cause: drowning. Over the past three years, more than 42 children have died in Indiana’s waterways and public or private swimming pools.

As Indiana summer heats up, the number of people entering Indiana’s waterways will increase and so will the risk to Indiana swimmers.

This past month, three Indiana State agencies are attempting to raise awareness of the problem. The Department of Child Services (DCS), the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Indiana State Department of Health joined with the Indianapolis Parks and Recreation Department to focus on the guidelines every parent should know in order to guarantee the safety of their children in and around water.

Continue reading "Indiana Promotes Pool Safety" »

The Food and Drug Administration needs to do much more to prevent cardiac device defects that result in a recall. The Government Accountability Office has just released a report which chides the federal agency for its oversight failures.

According to the report, cardiac devices account for some of the most frequent medical device recalls initiated by the Food and Drug Administration. The results were based on an audit of data from 2005 to 2009. According to the data, there were 3,510 medical device recalls during this period of time. Out of these, cardiovascular medical devices were the most frequently recalled devices.

Continue reading "FDA Should Increase Oversight to Prevent Cardiac Device Defects" »