Half-Million Dollars is Average Malpractice Claim Payout in New York City
|
Payout For Malpractice Victims Rises Medical malpractice claims stayed just about steady in New York in the last year and the average payout for victims of medical mistakes actually rose significantly over that time. New York Daily News reports that New York paid out $131 million in 2013 (during the city's fiscal year) on 262 settlements. That averages out to about a half-million dollars per claim. That total includes a record nearly $10 million settlement issued to a woman who was left paralyzed following two epidural injections delivered during the birth of her child. According to our previous reports, medical malpractice and medical errors are more common than most people think. In fact, data from the research firm Kaiser Permanente shows that more than of all Americans aren't even sure what the term "medical error" means. In the U.S., the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed about 225,000 people die every year due to medical malpractice and medical errors, according to our previous reports. Further data shows that as many as 5 percent of all hospital patients in the U.S. will be a victim of medical error. Many Victims Not Filing Lawsuits Even though the recent data from New York seems high, it could actually be much higher. Our previous data shows that most victims of medical malpractice never file a lawsuit against those responsible for the complications that arise from medical errors. We recently reported on data from the Harvard Medical Practice Study that found just one out of every eight victims of medical malpractice will go forward with a lawsuit.
|