Will Reopening Lead to a Spike in Medical Malpractice Cases?
Legal liability has been a concern throughout the coronavirus pandemic—but not for the medical world. While clients and customers have been suing businesses, and those businesses have been suing their insurers, hospitals and doctors have primarily been safeguarded from claims. This has been due to fewer elective procedures, courts being closed, and public sentiment strongly in favor of healthcare workers. But people in the insurance industry think this could change. As Captive International reported in August, insurers believe that pandemic-related understaffing at hospitals and low revenue “is a recipe for increased mistakes” which could mean a rise in malpractice claims.
Stretched Too Thin
The prediction, by Clare Bello of medical malpractice claims management company VCM, grows from the observation that many healthcare providers are both understaffed and low on revenue. Hospitals are losing money due to the coronavirus—more than $50 billion per month in the first four months of the pandemic, according to the American Hospital Association. Patients are delaying or foregoing elective procedures. The AHA says costs are also rising because certain hospital supplies are ten times more expensive than before the pandemic, and patients who need ventilator support are more than twice as costly to treat than the average patient. Meanwhile, “surge demand” means hospitals are hiring extra workers, paying more overtime or both, the AHA says.
Revenue flow problems impact patient care. An analysis published by PLOS ONE in 2019 found that “…hospitals under greater financial distress have less favorable patient experience of care, higher readmission rates, and increased risk of adverse patient quality and safety outcomes for both medical and surgical patients.”
Overworked Doctors and Nurses Make Mistakes
Unfortunately, understaffing is a well-known predictor of medical malpractice claims. Multiple surveys of U.S. nurses have found that hospital nurses believe they’re understaffed. According to the Detroit Free Press, the Michigan Nurses Association found that 22% of nurses knew of a patient death they believe was caused by unsafe nurse-to-patient ratios. Another 57% knew of infection, and 63% knew of medical mistakes they attributed to understaffing.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association found that half of its survey respondents believed a patient was injured by understaffing, and 25% blamed a death on staffing problems. The Minnesota Nurses Association saw a 32% rise in reports of short staffing between 2014 and 2015.
The journal BMJ Quality & Safety published research in August that found a correlation between understaffing and unfavorable safety grades. That study—undertaken just before the coronavirus pandemic increased demand on hospitals—found that 49.1% of medical-surgical nurses and 46.7% of ICU nurses gave their own hospitals unfavorable patient safety grades due to understaffing, with patient-to-nurse ratios of 5.9 for medical-surgical nurses in New York and 5.2 in Illinois.
This analysis in the BMJ found that major hospital staffing issues existed before the pandemic even hit. The authors observed that “Hospital nurses were burned out and working in understaffed conditions in the weeks prior to the first wave of COVID-19 cases, posing risks to the public’s health.”
As the study points out, its data shows that nurses were already understaffed in New York and Illinois before the pandemic—and now, “news stories abound with front-line nurses who are under-resourced to care for the surge of critically ill patients.”
Tolling of Statute of Limitations
In addition, Captive International notes that 21 jurisdictions have tolled statutes of limitations for any litigation, including medical malpractice. This deadline extension accounts for the fact that courts were closed for some time—but it creates a more extended period in which claimants can file medical malpractice cases. Lawsuits that might otherwise have missed their deadlines will be filed along with cases that are within the typical statute of limitations.
Let Cambridge Medical Experts Help
As the country reopens, it will only be a matter of time before we see a surge in COVID related medical malpractice claims. Cambridge Medical Experts is here to help you find the best experts for your case. We connect litigators across the United States with top notch medical experts in a variety of fields, from general practice to rare specialties. Call us at (617) 768-7103 or contact us online to find out how we can strengthen and add value to your case.
