In 1999 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released their stunning 
findings on preventable deaths in hospitals in their report 
entitled "To err is human". The IOM went so far as to say that 
preventable deaths in America's hospitals should be considered "a 
national epidemic". The IOM study found that between 44,000 and 
98,000 deaths in hospitals are attributable to medical errors 
each year. 

This makes medical errors the 7th leading cause of death in 
America, ahead of motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, and 
AIDS. Another study on wrongful deaths was conducted in 2003 and 
was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association 
(JAMA). This study, conducted by Healthgrades, showed that from 
the years 2000-2002 wrongful deaths in hospitals were actually 
more than double what the IOM reported. Healthgrades study showed 
that as many as 195,000 people suffer from wrongful death in 
American hospitals each year.

There are a number of reasons why these wrongful deaths happen 
each year in hospitals. Over worked doctors, medication errors, 
and inadequate staffing all lead to tragic preventable deaths. 
This has led to new rules regulating the number of hours that 
medical residents can work in a week and strict enforcement of 
these regulations. Medication errors have led to double and 
triple checking dosages and medication interactions. Inadequate 
staffing has led to hospitals being forced to close their 
emergency departments when staffing is inadequate. Despite these 
efforts to improve medical care, wrongful deaths still happen in 
hospitals everyday.

If you are the family member of one of these victims, chances are 
you do not care why this happened; you simply want justice for 
your loved one. If you are counting on your insurance company to 
bring justice you are wrong. The reason that the insurance 
company will not help you is complex. Insurance companies are 
primarily concerned about making a profit, not seeking justice. 
Let us assume that you have had a family member suffer a wrongful 
death in a hospital. Now if your insurance company seeks to 
penalize this hospital, the insurance company risks losing their 
contract with the hospital. If this happens, the insurance 
company has one less place to send the people that they cover. 
The insurance company also does not want to see this happen 
because they are getting a discounted rate for services from this 
hospital. Additionally, the insurance company can use this 
preventable death case as leverage with the hospital to further 
reduce the rates that they pay the hospital in future contract 
negotiations. While all of this may sound cold blooded and 
heartless, it is a reality.

The hospital and the physician want to quickly and quietly settle 
with the victims family members in order to avoid bad press. The 
hospital will do everything that it can to get the family members 
to sign off on a settlement, as will your own insurance company. 
This is not the justice that the victim of a wrongful death 
deserves. This is why choosing a competent and experienced lawyer 
is in your best interest.

While it may seem morbid to think about suing the hospital for 
the wrongful death, the family members of the victim need to 
think about taking care of their family financially and seeing to 
it that these mistakes do not continue to happen in Americas 
hospitals. Hospitals do not have incentive to change their 
practices unless they are hit where it hurts…in their wallet. 
When this happens, changes in the delivery of healthcare happen.

The financial compensation that an experienced competent lawyer 
can bring you will help to pay for medical expenses, funeral 
expenses, and will act as life insurance to assure that you and 
your family can meet your future expenses. A good lawyer knows 
how to get the most compensation for you and your family and 
understands the complex laws surrounding wrongful death cases. 
Not using a qualified lawyer will result in you not getting the 
full amount of compensation that would otherwise be awarded to 
you.

If you are seeking an extremely well qualified and experienced 
lawyer we can help you. We will help you and your get the 
compensation and justice that you deserve.
 

Landon Prescott writes on topics related to insurance and health.
The term wrongful death is defined as the loss of life wrongfully 
caused by another individual. If you have lost a loved one as the
result of a personal injury accident, although no amount of money 
can replace your loss, or properly compensate you, you need a 
wrongful death attorney to represent you. Michael H. Silvers, 
A Law Corporation has 24 convenient locations in California. 
http://www.michaelhsilvers.com/