Although doctors once encouraged women to schedule Pap smears every year, a federal advisory group and the nation's leading cancer organization are now encouraging women to schedule their Pap smears less frequently. Moreover, health care professionals now warn that most women should only be screened for cervical cancer once every three years, and testing more often than that can cause medical injuries.

The updated recommendations apply to all women who have a cervix and show no signs or symptoms of cervical cancer and who have no family history or other known risk factors for developing cervical cancer. Women who are at very high risk for cancer -- including women who have been diagnosed with a high-grade precancerous cervical lesion or those who have weakened immune systems -- should continue scheduling annual Pap smears.

We have written several posts about doctors who caused serious medical errors because they failed to perform necessary medical tests. In many cases, a "better safe than sorry" attitude in doctors is warranted. Although performing tests that rule out unlikely medical problems can be expensive, it rarely causes medical complications.

With Pap smears, however, this logic does not apply. False positives in Pap smears are very common, and additional testing is invasive. Additional testing in women is not only painful but it can also produce long-term complications, including difficulties with pregnancy and delivery.

Doctors and OB/GYNs work to protect patients by providing medical treatment and offering preventative care. However, now that new guidelines have been issued, doctors must review their practices to ensure they are giving women the services they need, and no more than that when it comes to Pap smears.

Source: the Atlantic, "Women Rejoice: Time to Bid Farewell to Your Annual Pap Smear," Susan H. Scher, April 24, 2012

For example, according to recent statistics, the number of medical malpractice filings in Pennsylvania has leveled off after a six-year decline. Because the statistics show that the number of medical malpractice cases being filed have declined, you might assume that the number of medical errors has also declined in the past six years. But is that conclusion correct?

Probably not.

The downward trend of filing medical malpractice cases in Pennsylvania is on par with the national average. However, there may be a slightly different reason for the local change. Many states have caps on the malpractice awards that victims can receive. In those states, lawyers and victims may feel discouraged about filing a case if they don't think they'll receive the compensation they deserve.

Pennsylvania does not cap compensatory damages in medical malpractice cases, which helps ensure victims are allowed to receive the settlements they deserve -- if they file medical malpractice cases.

The chief justice of Pennsylvania attributes the declining number of cases to the changes made by the state Supreme Court in 2003. Under the changed rulings, medical malpractice attorneys must obtain a certificate that shows that the medical procedure in the case fell outside of acceptable professional standards. In addition, cases can only be filed in the county where the cause of action takes place.

Although these changes sound reasonable, are they? If the result was to decrease the number of lawsuits filed while the rate of medical error stayed the same or increased, is that a victory? And if so, for whom? Certainly not for the victims and their families.

Regardless of whether the rate of medical error increases or decreases, the fact remains that even a single life altered or cut short due to negligence is too many. Lives aren't torn apart by statistics and families don't mourn percentages or error rates. In the end, the victims of medical malpractice are not numbers -- they are real people with real lives that may never be the same due to the negligent error of a medical professional or health care facility.

So in this situation, a decline in the number of medical malpractice lawsuits is not a victory. The only victories in medical malpractice are found in making the necessary changes to prevent errors from happening in the first place and obtaining justice for the innocent victims.

In many cases, legal action is the only way these real victories can be achieved.

Source: pennlive.com, "Medical Malpractice Claims Hold Steady Across Pennsylvania," May 8, 2012

When professionals make mistakes, an apology is often not enough to fix the error. However, some studies suggest that when doctors apologize after making medical mistakes, the injured patients are less likely to file medical malpractice lawsuits.

Few medical malpractice lawyers in Pittsburgh would suggest that apologies are wrong or inappropriate. However, an apology should never replace the financial compensation a patient may deserve after an injury.

For example, if a brain bleed is misdiagnosed as a migraine, an individual may have a stroke, be unable to return to work and require around-the-clock care. The financial compensation in a lawsuit should address the individual's loss of income, as well as the expenses associated with hiring a nurse to provide constant care.

At some hospitals, after doctors apologize for their mistakes, patients are contacted by lawyers who work with the insurance companies. The lawyers offer the patients settlements that are allegedly designed to compensate the patient for their losses. However, in most situations, the settlements that are offered are significantly less than what experienced lawyers could help individuals receive in court. In many situations, the settlements are not large enough to cover the medical expenses the individual will accrue because of the doctors' mistakes.

Most medical malpractice lawyers would agree that it is appropriate for doctors to apologize after making mistakes. However, it is important for patients to understand that apologies should not be viewed as a replacement for medical malpractice lawsuits that could provide much-needed financial relief.

Source: NPR, "Law Professor: Medical Apology Programs Might Manipulate Patients," Sacha Pfeiffer and Lynn Jolicoeur, May 1, 2012

Most parents in Pittsburgh hope it is the sort of thing that only happens on television shows. Unfortunately, when nurses make mistakes or when the safeguards set up by hospitals fail, it can happen anywhere.

Recently, something similar happened because of a nursing error.

Although neither the baby nor the family suffered any physical pain, the father was highly distraught by the accident, and the mistake highlights how easily mistakes can happen in the hospital. At the time of the accident, the hospital used two safety checks to help ensure babies were properly identified. In this case, both systems failed. The first system -- an ID card that included the baby's name, the mother's name and the mother's room number -- contained incorrect information. Once the nurse brought the baby to the mother's room, she should have checked to ensure the baby's ID matched the mother's ID, but she failed to do so.

Since the error, the hospital is working to implement a new safety feature. An audio check beeps if a mother and baby are not compatible. Although the new technology will be a large investment, a hospital spokesperson said it was a needed investment.

In this situation, the families were fortunate that neither baby was injured. However, if the babies were switched, it is not hard to imagine that they could have suffered more serious ramifications, such as failing to receive necessary medication. Hopefully the new technology will help eliminate these preventable and potentially fatal mistakes.

Source: Duluth News Tribune, "Controversy is born when new mom gets wrong baby," Bill Hanna, Mesabi Daily News, April 19, 2012

But what if that many people were dying each week because of preventable hospital errors? Would people stop going to the hospital? Unfortunately, that's not an option. It would be foolish not to go to the hospital when you're sick. However, each year as many as 100,000 Americans die in hospitals from preventable mistakes. To put that number in perspective, that's equal to four full jumbo jets crashing every week.

The mother expressed the feelings of most people who have lost family members because of medical negligence. "What do we care about the excellence in the system?" Where was the medical excellence for them when their loved ones were killed?

In today's society, there are 37 million people hospitalized every year, and we have little proof to suggest that the number of hospital errors is declining. In fact, a study that was released at the beginning of the year reported that 86 percent of hospital staff did not report harm done to Medicare patients.

Are hospitals doing anything to work toward reducing preventable errors? Read more in our next post to learn what they've already done and what shocking negligent errors continue happening daily.

Source: AARP, "Hospitals May Be the Worst Place to Stay When You're Sick," Katharine Greider, March 1, 2012

There are so many details to attend to immediately after the death that many individuals say their first chances to properly grieve happen at the viewing and during the funeral.

Imagine you're a son or daughter or wife who is trying to process losing your father or husband. It's been a hectic and overwhelming few days, and you're ready to pay your respects when you arrive at the funeral home for the viewing. However, because of a horrible hospital error or funeral home error, the man in the casket is not your loved one. That is what recently happened to one Pennsylvania family.

The family is suing both the hospital and the funeral home for the negligence, but it will be interesting to see who is eventually held liable for the negligence.

According to a dean at the Pennsylvania Institute of Mortuary Science, members of the hospital staff are responsible for tagging and bagging bodies after they're deceased. Morticians have no way of identifying the body, so as long as the tag says what it's supposed to, the morticians have no way of knowing whether it's the correct body.

If the hospital tagged the wrong body, then the hospital may be solely responsible for the tragedy the family suffered. However, if members of the funeral home took the wrong body, then they may be held more liable. Regardless of whose fault it is, this sort of error should never happen.

Source: Reuters, "Funeral Home Prepped Wrong Body for Viewing?" Stephanie Rabiner, Esq., April 4, 2012

The case of a young woman named Anna -- who died as the apparent result of an emergency room's failure to properly treat her sprained ankle -- points out that sometimes even relatively minor injuries, if not taken seriously by medical professionals, can put lives at risk unnecessarily.

In the days leading up to Anna's death, she visited three hospitals complaining of severe leg pain as the result of a sprained ankle. Perhaps sensing that something was wrong beyond a simple sprain, when Anna arrived at the last hospital she refused to leave the emergency room without treatment. When Anna became insistent that someone take her pain seriously, hospital officials called the police.

When the police arrived, a doctor said that Anna was healthy enough to be locked up. That potential emergency room mistake cost Anna her life. She died in a jail cell a short time later, and an autopsy determined that her death was caused by complications of her sprained ankle.

Although all the facts are yet not known regarding this case, if a patient presents an injury that is known to cause blood clots and reports pain consistent with deep vein thrombosis -- a known cause of pulmonary embolism -- and doctors fail to provide acceptable standards of care, this can represent clear medical malpractice.

Health care professionals from the hospital are defending their actions. They insist that the staff followed medical guidelines and performed the appropriate tests. The hospital released a statement saying, "Unfortunately, even with appropriate testing using sophisticated technology, blood clots can still be undetected in a small number of cases."

Although it may be true that the blood clots can go undetected, that does not necessarily relieve the emergency room staff of all responsibility in regard to their choice to have Anna sent to jail rather than provide treatment and monitor her condition for signs of pulmonary embolism -- a condition that, if caught early, can often be treated with so-called "clot-buster" drugs.

Sprained ankles hurt, but Anna's severe, seemingly abnormal pain could have alerted the health care workers that there was something more serious at play. Because the emergency room workers failed to investigate her health fully and take all due precautions to prevent or address a rare but known complication, a woman lost her life.

Ultimately, a court would need to decide whether Anna's treatment -- or lack thereof -- represents medical malpractice in the legal sense, and whether officials at the jail where Anna was sent are responsible for her death while she was in their care. But you don't have to be a physician or an attorney or an expert on health care policy to recognize that something is wrong with our system when an innocent person like Anna is sent to jail for demanding someone take her seriously, only to later die from complications of a relatively minor injury.

Source: msnbc.com, "Hospital: Mom booted from ER who died in jail was treated appropriately," The Associated Press, March 29, 2012

But what are parents supposed to do when they see someone harm their children, but they're unable to undo the damage? Sadly, that's the experience one mother recently endured. Veronica took her 3-month-old daughter to the hospital to treat the baby's fever. However, just before the baby was ready to be discharged, a nurse's serious mistake left the baby without a finger.

The baby's pinky finger fell to the ground, and the nurse threw down the scissors and ran from the room screaming.

Other doctors rushed into the room and attempted to reattach the baby's pinky, but it was too late. According to Veronica's attorney, "The nerves were too delicate. The veins were too small."

Veronica is suing the nurse and the hospital for negligence. According to the medical malpractice lawsuit, the nurse was negligent for trying to remove the tube with scissors and for failing to follow the appropriate safety procedures. The lawsuit also accuses the hospital of failing to train the nurses and for failing to supervise the nurse properly.

Veronica is asking for more than $15,000 in damages. Regardless of the amount of money that could be received in a lawsuit, it can never undo the permanent damage the nurse's negligent mistake caused.

When the baby's finger was cut off, the baby cried and cried, and Veronica was unable to comfort her. Now, Veronica wonders how she'll explain the accident to her daughter. How do you tell a child that although other kids have ten fingers, you only have nine? Neither parents nor children should ever be placed in that situation. Now, Veronica is working to ensure other children do not suffer from the same mistake.

Source: Orlando Sentinel, "Polk mom's lawsuit: Nurse cut off baby's pinky," Ray Reyes, Tampa Tribune, March 27, 2012