Comments for Overlawyered

Comment on Microblog 2008-10-13 by Reformed Republican

Reformed Republican — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:39:14 +0000

Batman costume will not enable you to fly.

Well, duh. Batman could not fly. That was Superman.

Comment on Critical lab value? Gotta page the doc by jb

jb — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:15:18 +0000

Ron Miller,
Your arguments may be right here, but the fact that you can’t see that hospitals create these policies as part of defensive medicine practices (i.e, to avoid lawsuits) raises significant doubts as to your credibility, as does the fact that you don’t recognize that, as has been said here, the process is the punishment.

Comment on Microblog 2008-10-13 by Diane Levin

Diane Levin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:36:53 +0000

Thanks so much for the link to Blawg Review #181 — glad you folks enjoyed Arrington’s quote via TechCrunch.

Comment on Critical lab value? Gotta page the doc by Nurse K

Nurse K — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:08:25 +0000

When I worked on the floors on straight nights, I’d get abnormal labs called to me at like 0700 or whatever. I’m not a robot, and only called those that I felt couldn’t wait until am rounds. Sometimes, of course, “am rounds” didn’t happen until like 3pm, so it’s not like there was a delay of only an hour…sometimes it was a shift or more before a “critical” lab was addressed. I’d oftentimes just call the night dood for the hospitalist service and just have them tell the patient’s specific hospitalist that was rounding on them there was a critical/unexpected lab and to see them sooner. They all carry around a sheet and jot down notes t/o the night if someone calls them about one of the hospitalist patients.

HH: If you don’t want people calling critical labs, you need to write an order saying ‘Call hospitalist immediately only if K < 2.8′ or something. Otherwise, you’re leaving it up to the nurses’ judgment.

Comment on Microblog 2008-10-11 by David Wisniewski

David Wisniewski — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:14:31 +0000

No, Oprah gets sued because she has a big mouth and thinks that she can spout off on whatever topic she likes. How many people do you who publicly accused Hermes of being racist because they closed their store early for a private event and wouldn’t let Oprah in to shop?

Comment on Corrections dept.: too good to be true by Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:39:32 +0000

Eight. Forty. Whatever. The obituary section was still the appropriate place to report it. Someone at that paper shares my sense of humor.

Comment on End of an error? by Corrections dept.: too good to be true

Corrections dept.: too good to be true — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:06:11 +0000

[...] other day we relayed an account of a Ralph Nader rally at Dartmouth whose attendance was said to be eight persons. Other coverage [...]

Comment on Microblog 2008-10-12 by Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:58:07 +0000

In reguards to the Grizzly bears and salmon, it is nice to see The Law of Unintended Consequences is alive and well. I’m waiting for the lawsuits against the State of Alaska by people who have had run ins with these bears.

Comment on Critical lab value? Gotta page the doc by Ron Miller

Ron Miller — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:45:41 +0000

Happy Hosptialist, I was not riled up about the survey or the ads. It just makes you less credible unless you read your blog further (I initially just read the one post). I was just mocking you for fun and I should not have done that. Obviously, you just wrote a thoughtful comment here and I appreciate what you are saying. And you have sold me: you are a doctor.

Look, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. I think you very well would know better than I would on this nuanced issue. My point is that when your blog is linked to by Overlawyered, the very title of the blog suggests the implicatation that this is the fault of “overlawyering” and that medical malpractice claims are the root of this evil. My original post was directly on point to this: that you can’t bundle every problem of blame shifting and defensive medicine at the doorstep of malpractice claims. You can dump some problems, I’ll grant you. But we have to be careful which choose to place on that doorstep. One reader, Deoxy, blames the sub prime housing market crisis and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst on tort lawyers. Walter Olsen and, I suspect, you, take a little more discerning view which is why I made the original comment.

This is the longest comment of my life!

Comment on Critical lab value? Gotta page the doc by Ron Miller

Ron Miller — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:31:26 +0000

Deoxy, I can go in and edit Wikipedia. Do me a favor, don’t site Wikipedia in a Dalbert motion. But of course Wikipedia does not say that anyway. One big cause of CP is hypoxia which can be caused by negligence. The debate is over what percentage can be caused by negligence. Your 10% number is disputed by most everyone but let’s pretend it is true. It still makes your original comment false.

Speaking of Dalbert, is there a single case in the country where a court has found that there is not science to support a relionship between CP and malpractice? Has there been a single decision that says that?

Again, we all agree that it happens. The question is one of degree.