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I was watching a local news station last night, and they had a story about medical tourism.  There is apparently a quickly growing trend of people visiting foreign countries (primarily India) to have medical procedures performed.  The procedures are suppposedly much cheaper than the same surgeries here in the US. ...

"IT'S BIGGER THAN AIDS.  IT'S BIGGER THAN BREAST CANCER. IT'S BIGGER THAN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS.  AND YET, NO ONE SEEMS TO REALLY BE AWARE OF THE PROBLEM." I couldn't have said it any better myself.  That quote from Dennis Quaid accurately sets forth the problem with medical errors.  Over 100,000 people...

Tort reform lobbying groups took an unusual step this week by filing a declaratory action suit here in Austin trying to establish that the 2003 medical malpractice caps on liability are constitutional.  The suit stems from a lawsuit against Corpus Christi doctor John McKeever.  In that suit, patient Adrian Cerny sued...

The American College of Emergency Physicians released its National Report Card of Emergency Medical Services, and Texas received a strong "C" grade.  The state received a "D" in public health/safety, a "D+" in access to care, and a "D+" in quality/patient safety.  But a strong "A+" in medical liability raised the...

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal has a heart-breaking story about prescription abuse in U.S. nursing homes. The first three paragraphs of the article say it all In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, AIDS drugs...

“If you are having surgery, make sure your doctor marks the proper surgical site clearly — and initials it.” That’s a recommendation from a recent Washington Post article titled HEADED FOR THE HOSPITAL? HERE’S HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF. That sounds a little extreme doesn’t it? While the hospitals may screw...

The Nov. 1, 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has an article encouraging federal legislation to require pharmaceutical and medical device companies with more than $100 million in revenue to disclose the amount of money and gifts they give to physicians. The bill, entitled the "Physician Payment...

Several states, including Texas, have special laws protecting emergency room physicians from medical malpractice litigation.  These protections may include higher burden of proof on the plaintiff or a different standard of care (for example, providing only liability when there is gross negligence). Last week, the Torts Prof Blog outlined an interesting...

An anonymous Texas ER doc has a blog post discussing the medical malpractice story of Christopher Jones. Mr. Jones, 33, arrived at a Los Angeles area emergency room complaining of chest pains, where he was told to sit down and wait his turn. After more than three hours, he got...

There is an interesting guest column in today's East Texas Review, a small East Texas newspaper, titled The Risky Life of a Patient.  The general gist of the column is that when we visit contractors, car dealers, or even lawyers, we're on guard to avoid becoming victims of one sort...