‘Illinois public hospitals paid out hundreds of millions of dollars for errors in the last decade’
- May 6, 2024
- 1 min read
“Unfortunately, tragic mistakes are often ignored in the debate surrounding affordability and medical malpractice ‘tort reform.’ In Illinois specifically, many patients have been critically injured in the last decade because of preventable medical errors in public hospitals. According to research by Better Government Association, Illinois hospitals paid out approximately $180 million in damages stemming from wrongful death lawsuits against the hospitals.
In Cook County, John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital paid out over $90 million for 97 wrongful death cases between 2004 and 2014. During the same period, the University of Illinois paid out almost $65 million for 35 wrongful death cases. While the scope of the medical malpractice awards and settlements is an indication of the problem, it is not the whole story. Many patients who suffer because of a medical error never even file a claim. Often this is because a patient is unaware that an error occurred.”