Malpractice went unchecked and crossed the Pacific

Dr. Jayant M. Patel made headlines earlier this year when an inquiry linked 87 patient deaths at a  hospital in Queensland, Australia to his care. But these weren’t the first murky waters for Dr. Patel. Take a trip back to Oregon where he practiced during the 1980s and 90s and had eight malpractice or wrongful death lawsuits brought against him. Four patients died. Side note: he garnered the "Distinguished Physician of the Year" from fellow doctors at Kaiser Permanente Northwest. But back to the story. The latest disturbing fact: his troubles went undetected by the Oregon's physicians oversight system.  The safety net that required malpractice insurers to report any claims they received. Medical experts would sift through the claims and then investigate if they suspected negligence or detected a pattern of incompetence. But the two state agencies responsible for collecting the reports and enforcing the law paid scant attention to compliance during the 1990s. When they got their act together, the state’s major insurers and health systems dragged their feet to comply. Ugh! Read [The Oregonian]