Georgia Personal Injury Blog

Bridge Collapses at Atlanta Botanical Garden

By Grant Law Office on December 21, 2008

On Friday, December 19, 2008, a walkway being built to give visitors an elevated view of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens turned into a disaster zone when it suddenly collapsed, sending workers plummeting as much as 40 feet to the ground below. One worker was killed Friday morning and at least 18 others injured, some critically according to published reports. Reports indicate that several people suffered injuries, including spinal injuries, that may result in life-long consequences.

Safety rules designed to prevent this type of tragedy exist. For example, architects and engineers are required to design structures such as bridges to standards that do not unnecessarily endanger workers, and ultimately, men, women and children who may walk across the bridge. In addition, the construction materials used to build the bridge must be able to withstand the weight and stresses placed on the bridge, both during and after the completion of construction. Workers from different companies must adhere to safety policies designed to prevent injuries to other workers.Read more…

Misdiagnosis is Often the Result of Cognitive Thinking Errors by Physicians

By Grant Law Office on May 5, 2008

A 2005 study published in Archives of Internal Medicine found that a cognitive error on the part of a physician, often referred to as “premature closure,” is the single most common cause of diagnosis errors. Premature closure occurs when a clinician arrives at an initial diagnosis that seems to fit the presentation of the patient, and fails to consider other reasonable possibilities based on inconsistent symptoms, testing or medical history.

A physician often begins to make conclusions about the cause of a patient’s problems within minutes of presentation, often before even conducting an examination. Research shows that most physicians quickly formulate possible diagnoses based upon “pattern recognition” and by relying upon hunches based on incomplete information. Using this type of pattern recognition to arrive at a diagnosis is mental processing based upon using shortcuts – known in psychology as “heuristics.”Read more…

Medical Websites

By Grant Law Office on March 30, 2008

The amount of medical information available on the Internet is mindboggling, if not mind-numbing! Once you wade into these cyber waters, it is often easy to feel more confused than assisted by the glut of articles, advertising and medical reports.

Here is a selection of the top medical sites with a short summary describing the content. There is a lot of quality health information on the Web, but finding it amongst the quackery can be a chore. Luckily many weaker players have fallen by the wayside, and more and more academic, government and research institutions are uploading their information onto the Internet!!Read more…

Doctors Fail to Self-Report Errors

By Grant Law Office on January 18, 2008

A newly published study by researchers at the University of Iowa has found that a significant number of doctors fail to self-report medical errors. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, revealed that 17 percent of doctors surveyed failed to report minor medical errors while 4 percent failed to report errors that resulted in disability or death. Data for the study were gathered from surveys with 338 doctors at three unidentified teaching hospitals. This is not surprising at all to me. In deposition after deposition, I have heard doctors who committed the most blatant of errors try to justify the unjustifiable. There are plenty of great physicians who are motivated by care and concern for patients. There are however, a small number of physicians, who like those in any business or profession, are there for the wrong reasons. Those individuals make the mistakes and when they do, sometimes try to bury them.

Source: The Des Moines Register – Study: Doctors Fail to Self-Report Errors

Patient Care Suffers as ER Wait Times Continue to Increase

By Grant Law Office on January 16, 2008

Have you ever waited and waited and waited to be seen in an emergency room? You are not alone. A new study, published in the Houston Chronicle on 1-15-08 has found that emergency room waiting times increased nationwide by 36% between 1997 and 2004.The study, conducted by researchers from the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, concluded that the increased wait likely has an adverse impact on patient care and may cause some to leave the hospital before seeing a doctor. Data for the study were based on the more than 90,000 emergency room visits in urban and non-urban areas. Houston Chronicle