I spend a lot of time talking with potential clients about how a lawsuit works.  Many people have the misconception that when something goes wrong, there is mandatory reporting and an internal investigation, even before they call me.  I always say that just because there should have been an investigation, that does not mean there was one. In the wake of a recent federal report, we know that only a very small percentage of patient harm events are reported:

Hospital incident reporting systems captured only an estimated 14 percent of the patient harm events experienced by Medicare beneficiaries. Hospitals investigated those reported events that they considered most likely to lead to quality and safety improvements and made few policy or practice changes as a result of reported events. Hospital administrators classified the remaining events (86 percent) as either events that staff did not perceive as reportable (61 percent) or as events that staff commonly report but did not report in this case (25 percent). 

-OIG Report, Hospital Incident Reporting Systems Do Not Capture Most Patient Harm

ABC News reported on the OIG conclusions, and also cited a study published in 2011 by Health Affairs, showing that approximately one in three hospitalizations result in hospital-related injuries, and nearly half of those are preventable.

If you are concerned about negligent care you have seen or experienced, don’t assume that something is already being done to address the problem.