Steroids injections into the spine are frequently used as an off label treatment for pain. While common, these injections can cause serious neurological injury. Before having this procedure, you should make sure you understand and discuss these risks with your doctor.
Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian Blog
Civil Procedure: Dismissal for Failure to File Expert Affidavit in Med Mal Case & Savings Statute
Passmore v. McCarver, 762 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 10 (App. Div. I, April 6, 2017) (J. Swann) FAILURE TO TIMELY FILE EXPERT AFFIDAVIT IN MED MAL CASE W/IN STIPULATED EXTENSION CONSTITUTES FAILURE TO PROSECUTE JUSTIFYING DISMISSAL AND RENDERING RELIEF UNDER SAVINGS STATUTE DISCRETIONARY Plaintiff brou...
Arizona Hospitals Cannot Use Federal Law To Hide Incident Reports From Patients
Arizona hospitals frequently try to keep an injured patient from getting reports that document the hospital's mistakes that caused their injury. Longstanding Arizona law, however, requires hospitals to give patients these incident reports. Recently hospitals use a new federal law to try to block patients from getting these reports. This argument is wrong, however, because the new federal law was never intended to prevent a hospital from giving patients incident reports.
Torts—Medical Malpractice Preliminary Expert Affidavit
Boswell v. Fintelmann, 760 Ariz. Adv. Rep 19 (App. Div. I, March 9, 2019) (J. Thompson) FAILURE TO FILE PRELIMINARY EXPERT AFFIDAVIT ESTABLISHING MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE SUIT HAS MERIT REQUIRES DISMISSAL WITHOUT PREJUDICE Pro per plaintiff filed a medical malpractice claim certifying pursuant to A...
NEW RULES ON NEW DOCTOR WORK HOURS PLACE PATIENTS AND THE PUBLIC IN DANGER
New rules adopted by the entity that accredits medical schools allows new doctors to work up to 28 hours a shift. This is dangerous to patient safety and public health.
Long Term Opioid Use Contributed To By Liberal Prescribing Emergency Department Physicians
Some doctors prescribe narcotics three times as often as others, which increases the risk a patient will become a long term user of these dangerous drugs.
Emergency Department Care of Critically Ill Patients Loses Out To Corporate Marketing
Modern corporate hospitals put unrealistic time goals on their doctors, which results in doctors being forced to lessen the time they spent with their most needy, sick patients.
ARE MANUFACTURERS OF OPIOID MEDICATIONS ATTEMPTING TO BLOCK COMMON SENSE LIMITS ON PAIN MEDICATIONS?
Opioid overuse is a national tragedy, with increasing deaths and destruction caused by these potentially dangerous medications. The CDC's 2016 guidelines attempted to curb their use. In response, many medical organizations paid by opioid drug manufacturers were critical of this effort, and their payment sources were not disclosed. This raises serous ethical questions about opioid manufacturer's efforts to address this national problem.
Evidence: Application of Rule of Exclusion to Expert Witnesses
Spring v. Bradford, __Ariz. Adv. Rep. __, 1 CA-CV 15-0505 (App. Div. I, January 12, 2017) (J. Cattani) WHERE PARTIES AGREE TO APPLY RULE OF EXCLUDING WITNESSES DURING TRIAL IT IS IMPROPER TO ALLOW EXPERT WITNESSES TO READ TRIAL TRANSCRIPT OF OTHER WITNESSES WITHOUT FIRST GETTING COURT'S PERMISS...
Civil Procedure: Computing Sanctions on Two Offers of Judgment/Taxation of Costs re Private Process Server
Orosco v. Maricopa County Special Health Care Dist., 757 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 11 (App. Div. I, February 2, 2017) (J. Johnsen) SANCTIONS FOR ACQUIRING JUDGMENT IN EXCESS OF OFFER OF JUDGMENT ARE CALCULATED FROM FIRST OF TWO OFFERS AND COSTS OF SERVICE BY PRIVATE PROCESS SERVER ARE TAXABLE Plaintiffs ...
A Recent Investigation Points To Overly Aggressive Patient Scheduling And Lack Of Uniformity As Continued Causes Of Surgical Errors
Despite efforts, preventable surgical errors continue. Overly aggressive scheduling of surgeries and lack of uniformity in the OR are two causes of these errors. Errors will continue as long as hopsitals continue to put profit over patient safety by scheduling too many surgeries in a day. Also, surgeons need to buy into hospital staff's need for uniformity.
Now that Millions Are Dangerously Addicted, The Medical Community Is Making An About Face on Opioids
Opoid deaths are more of a problem than car accidents. Now with many patient's addicted to potent pain medications, and doctors are shutting off the supply to their patients without the necessary support and care.
Torts—Medical Malpractice—Failure to File Preliminary Expert Affidavit
Romero v. Hasan, 755 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 27 (App. Div. I, January 5, 2017) (J. Thompson) PLAINTIFF'S FAILURE TO FILE PRELIMINARY EXPERT AFFIDAVIT IN MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE CASE SUPPORTS DISMISSAL/LIVE TESTIMONY OF EXPERT AT HEARING IN LIEU OF AFFIDAVIT NOT A PERMISSIBLE SUBSTITUTE UNDER STATUTE Plainti...
Torts/Civil Procedure/Juror Misconduct/Burden of Proof in Emergency Room Medical Malpractice/One Expert Per Issue Rule/Prejudice vs Probative Value/Judgment as a Matter of Law
Stafford v. Burns, 753 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 14 (App. Div. I, November 29, 2016) (J. Jones) MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE OF ER DOCTOR MUST BE PROVEN BY CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE REGARDING ALL ACTS AND OMISSIONS OCCURING IN THE COURSE OF EVALUATING AND TREATING A PATIENT IN ER/DEFENDANT DOCTOR CAN TESTIFY TO...
Torts: Medical Malpractice—Standard of Care: Failure to Supervise Nurse/Expert Qualifications Required Re Nurse Midwife/Rule 56(f) Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure
St. George v. Plimpton, 753 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 8 (App. Div. I, November 19, 2016) (J. Gould) PLAINTIFFS SHOULD PLEAD NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION AS SEPARATE COUNT/LACK OF TESTIMONY OF SPECIFIC ACTS OF NEGLIGENCE/LACK OF QUALIFICATIONS OF EXPERT/PROPER DENIAL OF REQUEST FOR MORE TIME TO FIND PROPER EXPERT...
Revolutionary New Standing Wheelchair
An Israeli company is launching a groundbreaking, self-stabilizing wheelchair that allows users to maneuver in a standing position. The device, from UPnRide Robotics, uses a gyroscope similar to the system found in two-wheeled Segway and self-stabilizing software. With these tools, a paralyzed ...
Another Study Shows Conservative Care is Equally Effective to Orthopedic Treatment
A string of studies are showing that common surgeries and therapies are no more effective than conservative care. Every patient should question whether a recommended procedure has been shown to have significant benefits over conservative care.
Choosing Wisely is a Great Resource To Evaluate Whether You Should Have A Test or Procedure
Tests and procedures carry risk. The Choosing Wisely site can give you very useful information to help help navigate these important decisions.
Torts—Medical Malpractice—Expert Qualification/Additional Time to Designate Expert/Discovery
Rasor v. Northwest Hospital, __Ariz. Adv. Rep. __, No.2 CA-CV 2015-0065 (App. Div. II, J. Espinosa) (Trial Judge Leslie Miller) STANDARD OF CARE EXPERT MUST SPEND MAJORITY PRACTICE IN SAME FIELD AS DEFENDANT PREVIOUS YEAR/DISCOVERY OF PRIOR SIMILAR INCIDENTS ALLOWED In this medical malpractice...
Civil Procedure: Venue Selection Clause in Contract Signed by Decedent Not Binding on Beneficiaries in Wrongful Death Action
Sierra Tucson, Inc. v.Bergin, __Ariz. Adv. Rep. __ No. 2 CA-SA 2016-0017 (App. Div. II, May 11, 2016) (J. Howard) WRONGFUL DEATH CLAIMS NOT DERIVATIVE OF CLAIMS DECEDENT MIGHT HAVE/CONTRACT NOT BINDING ON THOSE NOT PARTY TO CONTRACT Plaintiffs' decedent allegedly committed suicide while a patie...
2016 Top 10 Patient Safety Problems
Safety mistakes are a constant problem in modern health care. The top ten safety problems include electronic medical records, infections, wrong site surgeries, and doctors not following up on important tests.
Patients Frequently Don’t Understand Discharge Instructions
Discharge from the Emergency Department or hospital is often a hectic experience done while the patient does not feel well. All to often, important instructions are communicated at this critical time. Take time to make sure you understand all issues surrounding your past and future care to avoid dangerous complications.
Torts—Medical Malpractice—Battery
Carter v. The Pain Center of Arizona, PC, 731 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 34 (App. Div. I, February 2, 2016) (J. Johnsen) TORT OF BATTERY IN MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE CASE DOES NOT REQUIRE INTENTIONAL HARM OR INTENTIONAL OFFENSIVE TOUCHING WHERE THEORY IS WILFUL DISREGARD OF PLAINTIFF'S LIMITED CONSENT After a f...
Torts—Product Liability—Duty to Warn—Prescription Drugs—Learned Intermediary Doctrine—Consumer Fraud Act
Watts v. Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., 730 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 26 (January 21, 2016) (VCJ Pelander) DRUG MANUFACTURER PROTECTED FROM LIABILITY TO CONSUMER UNDER LEARNED INTERMEDIARY DOCTRINE IF IT ADEQUATELY WARNS PRESCRIBING PHYSICIANS OF SIDE EFFECTS/A DRUG IS “MERCHANDISE” AND THUS COVERED UNDER ...
Alarm Fatigue Continues to Cause Patient Injuries in Hospitals
Ignoring sounding alarms continues to cause injuries to hospital patients.