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Patients are entitled to free appraisals for suspected treatment errors
If errors are suspected after a medical treatment, those affected have various options to investigate this suspicion. One possibility is to contact the arbitration boards for medical liability issues, if the first attempt is to reach an out-of-court settlement. One of the largest of its kind is the arbitration board for medical liability issues of the northern German medical associations in Hanover. She is responsible for patients from ten federal states.
In the past 20 years there has been a significant increase in the number of cases examined at the conciliation office in Hanover. If less than 2,000 people per year turned to the arbitration board in Hanover at the beginning of the 1990s on suspicion of a medical malpractice, the number was well over 4,000 in the past year. However, years can pass until a decision is made and not always this will be in the patients' interest. The conciliation body presents individual, particularly succinct case studies on its website.
In case of suspected treatment errors, the patients are entitled to a free opinion (Image: Coloures-pic / fotolia.com) Over 4,000 suspected treatment errors were assessed
A total of 4,265 applications were submitted to the North German arbitration board in 2014, with around three quarters of them referring to suspected treatment errors in hospitals, reports the news agency "dpa". The spectrum of allegations is broad. From general medicine via anesthesiology and surgery, ophthalmology, dermatology and gynecology to neurology or urology, all medical specialties are represented. According to the "dpa", especially many cases concerned accident surgery and orthopedics. "If after an operation the shoulder still can move just as badly as before, which is more obvious than with wrong medical treatment", the managing director of the North German conciliation body, Kerstin Kols, is quoted by the "dpa". But some patients would also forget, "that they can not expect miracles from surgery". So hiding behind any suspected treatment error actually a faulty behavior of the doctors. According to the information provided by the "dpa", about a quarter of the applications submitted were acknowledged as well founded in Hanover.
Up to 170,000 treatment errors a year?
According to expert estimates, there are 40,000 to 170,000 treatment errors per year nationwide, although these are not recorded in a central register, according to the "dpa". Basically, those affected have several options if there is a suspicion of a treatment error. First, it makes sense to turn their own health insurance, recommends the expert of Independent Patient Services Germany, Andrea Fabris, to the news agency. In the case of suspected cases, the latter could turn on the medical service of the health insurances (MDK) to provide a free expert opinion. A total of 14,663 such cases were examined by the MDK reviewers in 2014 according to the dpa, with around a quarter of the cases also identified as actual treatment errors.
Improved safety culture required
According to Martin Dutschek from the MDK in Lower Saxony, the reported treatment errors are probably only the tip of the iceberg. This would require a national strategy for more patient safety. "Error reporting systems only work if there is a safety culture," the "dpa" quotes the physician. This calls the aviation as a possible model for the clinics, which is also expressed in a model project at the Nordstadt Hospital in Hannover, where the checklists of pilots were transferred to operating theaters. Nevertheless, even with the help of such changes in the future treatment errors can not be completely avoided. In such cases it is necessary to provide as much support as possible to the person concerned and to fully clarify the allegations.
Appraisals form the basis for the arbitration award
Physicians such as Hans-Jörg Oestern, retired trauma surgeon, act as assessors for the conciliation office in Hanover. The former Chief Physician of the General Hospital in Celle explains to the dpa that in recent years a great deal has changed in the clinics and that today quality and economy have come first. As one of 65 volunteer medical members of the arbitration board, according to the "dpa", Oestern meets with colleagues at least once a month to discuss the current cases. In this case, the most important computer and magnetic resonance tomograms from the patient files would frequently be examined together in the conference room. The reports prepared by the Conciliation Body are free of charge for the patients concerned. On the basis of the expert report, the arbitration award will then be issued, which is usually accepted by both sides. Only in about ten percent of the cases would be sought by the victims nevertheless a lawsuit, for example, to claim a higher compensation from the liability insurance of the doctor.
Complaints can last for years
However, according to the medical specialist lawyer Annette Corinth, civil proceedings against physicians can be quite considerable compared to the "dpa". She has already dealt with a case in which eight years passed before a decision. Although this was an exception, but for the victims of treatment errors, a shorter procedure may be already mentally very distressing - delays are also possible because, for example, the commissioned by the court opinion initially to be spongy and must be supplemented. Precisely because the "road to compensation is so stony, many injured patients look away from it", patient adviser Andrea Fabris is quoted by the "dpa". It therefore demands much easier recognition of treatment errors. (Fp)