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Unclear Discharge Instructions, Patient Loses Foot [podcast]
“I injured my foot after a box fell on it. They dressed it up in the ER, and I went home. After a few days it’s hurtin’ bad. I go back to the ER and then they said they have to cut off part of my foot.”
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Case Type
Medical treatment
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Responsible Service
Emergency Medicine
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Outcome
Closed without payment
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Unacknowledged PSA Test Result Delays Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Two years after an elevated PSA test result went unaddressed, the patient was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
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Case Type
Diagnosis
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Responsible Service
General Medicine
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Outcome
Closed with high-range payment ($500,000–$999,999)
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A Failure to Document Patients Refusal
A 60-year-old man’s allegation of a failure to diagnose colon cancer was complicated by his undocumented refusals of recommended cancer screenings.
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Case Type
Diagnosis
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Responsible Service
General Medicine
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Outcome
Closed with high-range payment ($500,000–$999,999)
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Woman Dies from Post-op Stroke When Anticoagulant Not Restarted [podcast]
“My mother underwent a procedure in the cath lab. But they didn’t put her back on blood thinners after the operation and she had a stroke.
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Case Type
Medication
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Responsible Service
General Medicine
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Outcome
Closed with payment >$2.5M
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Surgery Change Needed Better Consent [podcast]
A 25-year-old woman presented with history of an acoustic neuroma resection on the right side and neurofibromatosis type II (a genetic tumor suppressor syndrome).
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Case Type
Surgery/
Communication
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Responsible Service
Neurosurgery
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Outcome
Closed with payment >$1M
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Woman’s Stroke Progressed in ED without Intervention [podcast]
An 83-year-old woman with a history of multiple stroke risk factors was brought to the Emergency Department by her daughter who noticed her mother “sounded strange” during a phone conversation.
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Case Type
Patient Monitoring
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Responsible Service
Nursing
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Outcome
Closed with mid-range payment ($100,000–$499,999)
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EHR Error Exacerbates Adverse Event during IHT
Failure to monitor a patient's physiological status during intra-hospital transport.
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Case Type
Intra-hospital Transfer
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Responsible Service
Nursing
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Outcome
Closed with high-range payment ($500,000–$999,999)
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Lack of Preparation, Safety Culture, Contributed to Loss of Baby [podcast]
Early in this case, the team faced some adverse circumstances that left them unprepared for the complications they were up against.
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Case Type
Obstetrics-related
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Responsible Service
Obstetrics
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Outcome
Closed with payment >$1M
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Severe Consequences of Copy and Paste Documentation
A physiatrist repeatedly entered identical notes in the medical record, while nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists all documented subtle declines in the patient’s condition.
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Case Type
Medical Treatment
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Responsible Service
Physiatry
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Outcome
Closed with payment >$1M
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Misread and Missed Opportunities
A 55-year-old man’s lung cancer diagnosis was delayed by five years after an initial X-ray was misread and no follow-up study was performed.
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Case Type
Diagnosis
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Responsible Service
Radiology
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Outcome
Closed with payment >$2M
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View more malpractice case studies or listen to some in podcast format.
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