By Tim Tomasik

Everyone expects to receive quality medical care when they see a doctor or go to the hospital, but one aspect of medical treatment that is often overlooked is the manner in which doctors interact with patients. In many cases, overworked doctors may feel that they do not have the time to offer a kind word to their patients and give them the extra emotional attention that lets them know that their needs are being met. However, a recent study has demonstrated the importance of compassion, and a doctor who neglects to provide their patients with the proper care and attention may actually be causing them harm.

Study Finds That Compassion From Doctors Is Important For Patient Health

Some doctors have been known to experience “burnout” after many years of providing medical care to patients. Two doctors at Cooper University Health Care recently conducted a study to address this and find a way to help improve both doctor well-being and patient care. In their new book Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference, they describe how they found that when doctors and other health care providers take the time to connect with their patients emotionally, it not only improved patient outcomes, but it also decreased overall medical costs. In fact, the study even found that doctors who took extra time to demonstrate compassion felt that they had more overall time to care for patients.

By Tim Tomasik

In the United States, we expect the food purchased at restaurants and grocery stores to be safe to eat. Unfortunately, incidents in which people contract foodborne illnesses are all too common. This was demonstrated recently when a large number of people became ill after consuming ground beef. People who have experienced a food poisoning injury should contact an attorney to determine their options for pursuing compensation from the parties responsible.

E. Coli Illnesses Reported in Six States

In March of 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began receiving reports of E. Coli infections in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. As of April 12, 2019, 109 cases have been reported, and 17 of the victims have been hospitalized. The CDC believes that ground beef is the source of the infections, but it has not identified a supplier, distributor, retailer or brand of meat which may be responsible. 

By Tim Tomasik

Following the deaths of 157 people in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane on March 10, 2019, Boeing is under scrutiny for potential design defects in 737 MAX airplanes. This was the second plane crash of a Boeing 737 MAX in less than six months; a Lion Air plane crashed in Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189 people.

While both crashes are still under investigation, it appears that a faulty flight safety system may be to blame for these incidents. An investigation by BEA, the French aviation bureau, found that there were clear similarities between both crashes, and the sensors and software which are intended to prevent stalls may have caused pilots to lose control of these planes.

Shawn Kasserman of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman recently had the opportunity to teach constitutional law to the eighth-grade class at Dirksen Elementary School through the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s program, Lawyers in the Classroom. This program partners attorneys throughout the Chicagoland area with local schools to teach constitutional law to children in second through eighth grade. On January 15, 2019, Shawn taught Dirksen’s eighth grade class about the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures in the context of schools. The students discussed possible violations under the Fourth Amendment and debated whether these violations had any merit. 

By: Tim Tomasik and Lindsay Proskey

Uber investigators are overworked, underpaid, and in many cases have no experience qualifying them to examine thousands of serious reported incidents, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN. The 26-page memorandum revealed employees on Uber’s special investigation unit (“SIU”) routinely faced “serious level of stress and anxiety” related to massive caseloads handling the most severe incidents reported to the company, including verbal threats, physical and sexual assault, rape, theft, and serious traffic crashes. The internal document highlights the ride-share giant’s concerns about lost revenue from riders who learn about specific cases and hold a lasting impression that Uber is “unsafe” and “not worthy of their trust” after acknowledging CNN had actually underreported the incidence of sexual assaults.

As of May 2018, Uber's SIU consisted of approximately 75 people, whom the memo documents struggled to handle nearly 1,200 cases per week, (62,400 annually), with team members reporting stress, anxiety, and depression. The memo stated six of Uber’s investigators “were experiencing profound stress requiring clinical care” and that "although some reports shared with the SIU [were] frivolous” that “most of the cases reported have some basis of substantiation.”