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ADVERSE HEALTH EVENTS UNDER MINNESOTA LAW
MINNESOTA MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

The Minnesota Adverse Health Care Events Reporting Act of 2003 requires hospitals and outpatient surgical centers to report certain adverse health events to the Minnesota Commissioner of Health Below is a list of the events that hospitals are required to report.

The language is taken directly from Minnesota statutes 144.7065.

Surgical Events

1. Surgery performed on a wrong body part that is not consistent with the documented informed consent for that patient. Reportable events under this clause do not include situations requiring prompt action that occur in the course of surgery or situations whose urgency precludes obtaining informed consent; 

2. Surgery performed on the wrong patient; 

3. The wrong surgical procedure performed on a patient that is not consistent with the documented informed consent for that patient. Reportable events under this clause do not include situations requiring prompt action that occur in the course of surgery or situations whose urgency precludes obtaining informed consent;

4. Retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery or other procedure, excluding objects intentionally implanted as part of a planned intervention and objects present prior to surgery that are intentionally retained; and

5. Death during or immediately after surgery of a normal, healthy patient who has no organic, physiologic, biochemical, or psychiatric disturbance and for whom the pathologic processes for which the operation is to be performed are localized and do not entail a systemic disturbance. 

Product or Device Events

1. Patient death or serious disability associated with the use of contaminated drugs, devices, or biologics provided by the facility when the contamination is the result of generally detectable contaminants in drugs, devices, or biologics regardless of the source of the contamination or the product; 

2. Patient death or serious disability associated with the use or function of a device in patient care in which the device is used or functions other than as intended. Device includes, but is not limited to, catheters, drains, and other specialized tubes, infusion pumps, and ventilators; and 

3. Patient death or serious disability associated with intravascular air embolism that occurs while being cared for in a facility, excluding deaths associated with neurosurgical procedures known to present a high risk of intravascular air embolism. 

Patient Protection Events

1. An infant discharged to the wrong person; 

2. Patient death or serious disability associated with patient disappearance for more than four hours, excluding events involving adults who have decision-making capacity; and 

3. Patient suicide or attempted suicide resulting in serious disability while being cared for in a facility due to patient actions after admission to the facility, excluding deaths resulting from self-inflicted injuries that were the reason for admission to the facility. 

Care Management Events

1. Patient death or serious disability associated with a medication error, including, but not limited to, errors involving the wrong drug, the wrong dose, the wrong patient, the wrong time, the wrong rate, the wrong preparation, or the wrong route of administration, excluding reasonable differences in clinical judgment on drug selection and dose; 

2. Patient death or serious disability associated with a hemolytic reaction due to the administration of ABO-incompatible blood or blood products; 

3. Maternal death or serious disability associated with labor or delivery in a low-risk pregnancy while being cared for in a facility, including events that occur within 42 days postdelivery and excluding deaths from pulmonary or amniotic fluid embolism, acute fatty liver of pregnancy, or cardiomyopathy; 

4. Patient death or serious disability directly related to hypoglycemia, the onset of which occurs while the patient is being cared for in a facility; 

5. Death or serious disability, including kernicterus, associated with failure to identify and treat hyperbilirubinemia in neonates during the first 28 days of life. “Hyperbilirubinemia” means bilirubin levels greater than 30 milligrams per deciliter;

6. Stage 3 or 4 ulcers acquired after admission to a facility, excluding progression from stage 2 to stage 3 if stage 2 was recognized upon admission; and 

7. Patient death or serious disability due to spinal manipulative therapy.

Environmental Events

1. Patient death or serious disability associated with an electric shock while being cared for in a facility, excluding events involving planned treatments such as electric countershock; 

2. Any incident in which a line designated for oxygen or other gas to be delivered to a patient contains the wrong gas or is contaminated by toxic substances; 

3. Patient death or serious disability associated with a burn incurred from any source while being cared for in a facility; 

4. Patient death associated with a fall while being cared for in a facility; and 

5. Patient death or serious disability associated with the use of or lack of restraints or bedrails while being cared for in a facility. 

Criminal Events

1. Any instance of care ordered by or provided by someone impersonating a physician, nurse, pharmacist, or other licensed health care provider; 

2. Abduction of a patient of any age; 

3. Sexual assault on a patient within or on the grounds of a facility; and 

4. Death or significant injury of a patient or staff member resulting from a physical assault that occurs within or on the grounds of a facility.

Minnesota Adverse Health Events Annual Report

The Minnesota Department of Health prepares an annual report of adverse health events that occurred in Minnesota hospitals and outpatient surgical centers.

• 2007 adverse medical events
• 2006 adverse medical events
• 2005 adverse medical events

Depending on the injuries sustained by patients and other facts, these adverse health events may give rise to medical malpractice claims. A Minnesota medical malpractice lawyer will need to review the medical records to determine if the case is worth pursuing.

Minnesota medical malpractice attorneys at Pritzker | Ruohonen have decades of experience and a national reputation. Attorneys at the firm have been interviewed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Lawyers USA and other publications. In recognition of their accomplishments, Minnesota attorneys Fred Pritzker and Rich Ruohonen have been named "Super Lawyers" by Law & Politics magazine. Fred Pritzker is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America.

To contact a Minnesota medical malpractice attorney at Pritzker | Ruohonen, please call toll-free at 1-888-377-8900 or submit the firm's free case consultation form.

Pritzker | Ruohonen & Associates, P.A.
Plaza VII, Suite 2950
45 South Seventh Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402-1652

Telephone: 612-338-0202
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Email:info@pritzkerlaw.com

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