Davis Law Group, P.S.

Practicing On Patients: Medical Malpractice at Teaching Hospitals

Healthcare workers face a unique challenge in honing their skills, testing theories and developing new procedures or treatments: they are practicing or experimenting on people. This poses a serious risk to patient safety. Hospitals and doctors don't usually tell patients when they are ‘practicing on them' because it makes them hesitant and nervous. So you will never know if this is the first time a doctor or nurse has performed your procedure or the one thousandth time.

You are more likely to be the guinea pig and potential victim of malpractice at a teaching hospital such as the University of Washington Medical Center. There are approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide. Roughly one fifth of hospitals are teaching hospitals where medical students and novice doctors learn the ins and outs of being a practicing physician. The new research published in the Annals of Surgery report an increase risk of death to patients who have emergency surgery performed at a teaching hospital as opposed to a non-teaching hospital.