The Lawrence Firm Blog

A doctor who may have treated patients from Kentucky has been arrested by the FBI for Medicare fraud. The doctor, who worked out of a private practice in Hamilton, Ohio, is accused of billing Medicare for three times as many procedures as the next most active interior lumbar fusion surgeon. A woman whose daughter was treated by the doctor spoke about the promises he made to her prior to the

The founder of HONOReform, a national advocacy group dedicated to ensure injection practices are followed in medical facilities, knows firsthand the devastating effects of unsafe injection practices. In 2001, she contracted hepatitis C while she underwent chemotherapy to fight her breast cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with her state’s health department investigated how she contracted the disease. What they uncovered was startling. She said she

Kentucky readers may take an interest in the issue of serious hospital errors and the efforts of non-profits and advocacy groups to make hospital safety records public information. One such non-profit, The Leapfrog Group, represents employers and other healthcare purchasers. They have compiled a list of the most serious mistakes that hospitals make, mistakes that they call “never events,” meaning that these hospital errors should never happen. According to a

Kentucky residents may not be aware of the high number of patients who are subjected to medical errors or who experience issues with their healthcare. A study of nonfatal errors conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Medicine found that almost one in five patients are harmed in some way during the course of their hospital care. The number may be larger since some patients might not report medical

Are there better times than others are as far as being scheduled for a hospital procedure in Kentucky is concerned? According to some studies, there may be better times to have surgery or deliver a child. Additionally, some months may be better than others to be hospitalized. Time of day may play an important role in avoiding hospital malpractice. For example, popular belief is that most instances of hospital errors

Kentucky readers may be interested in the following account of a man who sued his urologist after a botched penile implant surgery. The man suffered with an erection that lasted approximately eight months following the procedure. The man alleges that the condition had a negative effect on his quality of life. Activities that he enjoyed, such as motorcycle riding or family get-togethers were uncomfortable or embarrassing. The situation caused him

Medical personnel and advocates for patient safety in Kentucky and across the nation took notice as the MedStar Health system admitted to giving more than 200 patients in several medical facilities in Maryland and Washington, D.C. the wrong dosage of medication in 2010. The error didn’t result in any known medical complications, so it went undetected for about two months as clients received twice the correct dosage. To MedStar’s credit,

Some Kentucky residents may be interested to learn about a 52-year-old man who was taken to the hospital following a car accident. Medical personnel installed a nasogastric (NG) tube. Blood was discovered in the tube, which required the man’s stomach to be pumped. Later, doctors realized that the tube had been inserted into the man’s brain by mistake. Luckily, the man received surgery and the problem was corrected. Another patient

A doctor at an internationally well-known hospital, New York City’s Mount Sinai Medical Center, was recently relieved of his duties after performing an incorrect kidney operation. The patient, a 76-year-old man who had two diseased kidneys, was scheduled to have one of them removed. The surgeon who performed the operation accidentally took out the wrong kidney, and he was subsequently prohibited from performing both clinical and administrative tasks. The names

Many pregnant women in Kentucky will be interested to know that some of the prenatal advice they’ve heard from their medical professionals may not always be in their best interest. A new survey conducted on 2,400 women who had recently given birth has found that some women often experience several invasive interventions and medical procedures, including induced labor and cesarean sections, without truly understanding the risks involved. These hospital errors

Medical errors across the nation, including Kentucky, cause many debilitating injuries and deaths yearly. Some hospital mistakes are simply due to conflicts between doctors or surgeons and nurses or other hospital personnel. In one such case, a technical assistant became frightened during heart surgery after the doctor swore and screamed. The assistant believed the man would hit him, and he won a $325,000 settlement after the Indiana Supreme Court ruled

UnitedHealth Group, a national provider of health insurance to residents of Ohio, Kentucky and other states, was recently ordered to pay $500 million in punitive damages to plaintiffs in a Las Vegas civil lawsuit. The three plaintiffs, who will share the hospital malpractice damage award, had claimed that the company contracted with a clinic whose practices infected the victims with hepatitis. The original lawsuit requested $2.5 billion in damages. Instead,