Tennessee Injury Law Center
As Tennessee medical malpractice lawyers, we are often asked to evaluate claims against doctors who practice in the specialty of internal medicine. (For an understanding of what is necessary to prove a medical malpractice claim in Tennessee, read our Legal Guide titled "Understanding Medical Malpractice Cases in Tennessee."
The Doctor’s Company, a insurance company that insures doctors for medical malpractice claims, has published a study that looks at past medical malpractice claims against internists. Here are some of the results of the study:
- 58 percent of the allegations in these claims were related to diagnosis
- 23 percent were related to medical treatment
- 9.5 percent were related to improper medication management,
- 2.2 percent involved ordering errors
- 1.6 percent involved patient monitoring
- 5.7 percent were miscellaneous.
The diagnosis related claims were further broken down into two separate categories – failure to diagnose (79%) and delay in diagnosis (21%). The largest number of failure to diagnose claims were cardiovascular disorders, while the great number of claims in the delay in diagnosis category had to do with delay in diagnosing tumors.
Medical malpractice claims in Tennessee are very difficult, and relatively few lawyers in the state are known for representing patients in these cases. I was honored to have been named "Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year" in Nashville in 2010 by Best Lawyers in America and continue to practice in this interesting but complicated field. If you believe that you may be the victim of a medical error of any type, please contact us at 866-812-8787 or complete the Case Evaluation form at the right.