Elderly Patients at High Risk for Medical Injuries

 Posted on December 00, 0000 in Medical Malpractice

When we do to the doctor or hospital because we are sick or injured, we put our trust into the physicians and other medical personnel that the treatment and care they give us will make us well, or at the very least, comfortable. What we do not anticipate is that the care we receive will actually cause more medical issues or be dangerous. But for many elderly patients, that is exactly what happens.

A study that was recently conducted by researchers at the Gerontology Program at Towson University in Maryland revealed that one in five elderly Medicare patients sustain injuries that frequently have nothing to do with the medical problems they are being treated for. Some of the more common injuries include being prescribed medication that causes allergic reactions, being given the wrong medication or having treatments for an illness which causes other medical problems other than the original diagnosis.

The research team analyzed data of approximately 12,500 Medicare patients whose average age was 76 years-old. The data used was collected between the years of 1998 through 2005.

The majority of these medical injuries–62 percent–occur to on an out-patient basis. Most of the past research that has been done on medical injuries has focused on those that occur in hospitals. But as this study discovered, there is a high rate of medical injuries to patients happening in doctors’ offices and clinics.

Elderly patients most vulnerable to medical injures were males, people who suffered from chronic medical conditions or disability, and those from lower-income backgrounds. In patients with chronic disabilities, the rate of risk of medical injury increased by almost 30 percent for each condition they suffered from. In general, for each month older a patient was the rate of risk increased by one percent.

The fatality rate for patients who had suffered from a medical injury was double than the rate for patients who had not.

If you have suffered from an injury or illness because of medical malpractice treatment you received, contact an experienced Orland Park personal injury attorney. Call Issa Law, LLC at 708-966-2408 today.