It was a very busy year for the Medical Negligence Section, primarily due to the completion of the Washington Medical Negligence Deskbook. What started as a vague idea is now a tangible resource, with eighteen chapters ranging from the time limits that apply to medical negligence actions to the appeals process.

The finished product is the first of its kind, and will be updated to keep pace with changing statutes and case law. Thank you to all of the Deskbook’s wonderful authors for giving their time and energy to this project. With the help of these authors, our Section launched the Deskbook at a sold-out CLE event in April. 

As we wrap up the Deskbook, we turn our attention to current developments affecting our practice and our clients. We are already planning section meetings and webinars for members starting in early fall. Please let us know what topics and speakers you would find most interesting.

One area of likely focus is the lack of transparency in medicine. In the beginning of May, the British Medical Journal published a groundbreaking study by two Johns Hopkins patient safety experts that found medical error to be responsible for nearly 10% of all U.S. deaths, and the third leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease.¹ Beyond the shock value of the findings, the focus of the research is on the potential for improvement, if only we can shed light on errors and make changes to prevent their repetition. 

In an online interview discussing the article,² lead author Martin Makary describes the “wall of silence” created by confidential settlements, discouraging dissemination of information about errors and their investigations. He believes that confidentiality agreements in the wake of errors and lawsuits are partly responsible for allowing the same mistakes to occur again and again. 

Another “wall of silence” is the one created in the name of quality improvement, whereby hospitals, practice groups, and other healthcare entities in Washington enjoy a statutory protection from discovery of materials created by or exclusively for quality improvement committees. This carve-out from the otherwise liberal rules of discovery in Washington creates a strong incentive for hospitals in our communities to stuff anything that does not look good for their case into the black box of “quality improvement.” 

For all of the recent talk about transparency in quality and safety, we can tell you firsthand how rare it is for our clients to hear a full accounting of what has been investigated, how the investigation proceeded, and what the results were from the investigation. Perhaps the new light cast on medical errors by Dr. Makary’s research will teach us that protecting providers from outside discovery of their errors should not be valued above protecting patients and demonstrating accountability in the business of health care. 

Angela Macey-Cushman, WSAJ EAGLE member, practices at Chemnick, Moen, & Greenstreet.
Tyler Goldberg-Hoss, WSAJ EAGLE member, practices at Chemnick, Moen, & Greenstreet in Seattle. 

1 Martin A Makary & Michael Daniel, Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US. BMJ 2016;353:i2139.
2 Available at: http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139.

This article originally appeared in the June 2016 Trial News, found here:

https://www.washingtonjustice.org/index.cfm?pg=trialNewsDB&tnType=view&indexID=10907

Publication Date: June 2016
Volume: 51-10
Authors: Tyler Goldberg-Hoss , Angela Macey-Cushman
Categories: Medical Negligence, Legal Publications, Section Updates