Eckerd Youth Alternatives, Inc. and The Devereux Foundation, hire to provide foster care and related services for the Florida Department of Children and Family, agreed to pay $4.8 million to settle claims arising out of the sexual abuse of a minor child. Lawyers for the minor children alleged that Eckerd and Devereux grossly mishandled the minors’ case file during a routine reunification process and that their negligence resulted in the minor children being placed in the custody of an adult male who had a verified history of sexually abusing a child.

Big Medicine” is a multi-trillion-dollar industry in the United States. Many hospital chains rake in millions of dollars each year marketing their services on TV, billboards, radio, and other media. The medical community in South Florida is no different. We’ve all seen the advertisements. When it comes to hospitals, however, patient safety may not be rising quite as fast as profits.

At any given time, delivery services can be inundated with orders, “notifications,” and a variety of customer requests. This can lead to long hours on the road, fatigue, distracted and negligent driving, and other driving errors which can jeopardize the safety of others on the road. It is easy to see how high demands for and on these services can increase the likelihood of car accidents, injuries to pedestrians and cyclists, and other harm. This is especially true for Miami residents given Miami’s crowded roads and increasing population.

In Florida, a medical malpractice claim is essentially a negligence action against a medical doctor or other “health care provider,” as that term is defined by Florida Statute § 766.202. While Florida Statute § 766.202 does not include all medical professionals, it does include the following: medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, chiropractors, podiatrists, optometrist, and dentists.