Texas Medical Malpractice Lawyer – Texas Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Settlements
If you or a loved one have been injured by a medical mistake that could have been prevented, you have important legal rights and may be entitled to financial compensation. Call us today to get the facts. Toll Free 1-866-777-2557 or use our online contact form and a Texas Medical Malpractice Attorney will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your options. This is a free consultation, and there are no legal fees unless you receive money at the end of the case.
Texas Medical Malpractice
Medical Malpractice Statistics
The third-leading cause of death in the United States may surprise you: medical malpractice. It follows closely behind heart disease and cancer. The National Practitioner Data Bank reports that there were 364,893 medical practitioners between the years of 2004 to 2014. During that same time, there were also 392,100 adverse effects.
However, a study published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services in 2012 indicated that the hospital reports only 14 percent of all errors or mistakes.
Of medical malpractice situations, roughly 45 percent are due to inpatient mistakes while 41 percent are outpatient problems. Roughly 9 percent involve mistakes for both inpatient and outpatient individuals.
The most common medical errors are as follows:
- Diagnosis-related
- Surgery-related
- Treatment-related
- Obstetrics-related
- Medication-related
- Others
- Monitoring-related
- Anesthesia-related
Diagnosis-related errors are the most common outpatient mistake while surgery-related errors are the most common inpatient related mistake.
Horror stories about medical malpractice situations are unfortunately occasionally true. For example, one man died after being placed on life support. He was living in an assistive living facility when he passed. They later found unopened ketchup packets, paper towels, and bags in his stomach and bowels. In another case, a doctor implanted a screwdriver instead of the titanium rods that the patient needed in his back. In 1995, another doctor amputated the wrong leg of a diabetic patient.
Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Statistics
In 2012 alone, insurance companies spent over $3 billion in medical malpractice payouts, which resulted in a payout roughly every 43 minutes for a total of 12,142 payouts.
Lifelong and serious injuries had higher payouts, which makes sense based on the severity of their claims. Median payouts for those with serious injuries in Missouri and Florida, for example, averaged between $278,000 and $350,000. Injuries that are minor, temporary, or based on emotional damages have the lowest payouts across the United States.
Payouts generally increase as the case progresses. That is, cases that settled early had a lower payout than those that went all the way to trial. Part of the reason for this trend is that smaller, less serious cases often do not go all the way to trial.
However, most medical malpractice claims were closed without paying anything in compensation to the victim. There has been a steady decline of payouts since 2003. When cases go to trial, they often have a success rate of under 25 percent. Successful settlement resolutions are in the range of 60 percent, however. Roughly 93 percent of all medical malpractice cases settle, which means that only 7 percent of cases will go to a full jury trial.
Surgeons are by far the most common defendant in a medical malpractice case. Non-surgeon doctors account for about one-third of all defendants.