- Patent trolls are thriving, one study finds [271 Patent Blog, The Prior Art, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PDF]
- One plaintiff’s lawyer’s view: Did Rep. John Murtha Die From Medical Malpractice? [Turkewitz]
- “Rubber stamps for two [class action] settlements” [Ted Frank, Center for Class Action Fairness, AOL and Yahoo cases]
- Little League and baseball bats: “America’s favorite pastime collides with favorite pastime of personal injury lawyers” [Bob Dorigo Jones]
- States push home day-care providers into unions [Stossel]
- U.K.: “Cardiologist will fight libel case ‘to defend free speech’” [Times Online] More on British libel tourism: Frances Gibb, Times Online (“It’s official – London is the libel capital of the world” ), Citizen Media Law, Gordon Crovitz/WSJ, N.Y. Times.
- From a half-year back, but missed then: FBI says Miami lawyer bought stolen hospital records for purposes of soliciting patients [HIPAA Blog, Ambrogi/Legal Blog Watch]
- Would-be Green Police can be found in Cambridge, Mass., not just Super Bowl ads [Peter Wilson, American Thinker via Graham]
Posts Tagged ‘hospitals’
January 14 roundup
- Anti-vaccine activist files defamation suit over much-discussed Wired article against Dr. Paul Offit, author Amy Wallace and Conde Nast [Orac and many followup posts]
- “Kid Suspended for Bringing Peppermint Oil to School” [Free-Range Kids]
- Eric Turkewitz names his favorite Blawg Reviews of the year and has kind words for ours;
- “New Guide to FTC Disclosure Requirements for Product Endorsements” from Citizen Media Law;
- U.K. safety panel: press misreported our views, we do want businesses to grit icy public paths [update to earlier post]
- Another kid trespassing on the railroad tracks, another case headed to court [Oregonian]
- “Katrina negligence lawsuit has implications for all hospitals” [USA Today, earlier]
- “Judicial Misconduct: The Mice Guard The Cheese” [WSJ Law Blog on this Houston Chronicle piece]
Hospital emergency preparedness suits
Hurricane Katrina legal aftermath, cont’d: “About 200 lawsuits have been filed in Louisiana alleging that these institutions [hospitals and nursing homes] are liable for the deaths and for the suffering of other patients who survived because corporate failure to plan adequately for flooding and implement evacuation constituted negligence or medical malpractice.” [New York Times] (& welcome Above the Law, On the Record readers)
75 years of hospital records
Tampa: “When medical malpractice lawyer Michael J. Trentalange asked St. Joseph’s Hospital for every ‘adverse incident’ report made since the hospital opened in 1934, the hospital pushed back hard. In July, the hospital sued him, and Trentalange sued right back, the Web site Health News Florida reported.” (AP/Sarasota Herald Tribune via White Coat).
Defensive medicine and hospital admissions
Unnecessary testing and prescribing is often the first example that comes to mind in discussions of defensive medicine, but Stuart Turkewitz, M.D., explains why needless hospital admissions, especially of older adults and those with chronic medical problems, should also be seen as a prime example. Just to lend interest, Dr. Turkewitz, an internist and geriatrician, contributes the views as a guest blogger at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog, published by his lawyer brother Eric.
“Do resident work-hour restrictions increase surgical complications?”
According to a new study, a high-profile government intervention in physician training may not be working out quite as hoped. [Chris Emery at Kevin MD]
“The unintended consequences of preventing patient falls”
Falls are considered “never events” under Medicare guidelines and of course are the subject of litigation against hospitals and other providers. The costs of overreaction to fear of being charged with error are not so readily measured, but are only too real:
If hospitals are scrutinized for the occurrence of falls, the natural tendency will be to focus on such events even at the expense of competing (and perhaps more important) outcomes. Unintended consequences are likely to include a decrease in mobility and a resurgence in the use of physical restraints in a misguided effort to prevent fall-related injuries.
July 14 roundup
- Is it OK if Boulder County prosecutor Tweets the murder trial while in progress? [Colorado Daily]
- Pierce O’Donnell terms his gigantic Katrina/New Orleans lawsuit a “crapshoot” [Hiltzik, L.A. Times]
- Massachusetts hospital not responsible for third-party injuries from just-released colonoscopy patient’s auto accident [Ronald Miller]
- Controversial “citizen suit” provision was removed from environment bill as one of the compromises to obtain House passage [Global Climate Law Blog and more, earlier] More: Coyote.
- “I was shocked at the number of cases the neurologist, radiologists, and especially the neurosurgeon had against them.” [ER Stories with a first-person lawsuit tale]
- I liked Dole Food better when it was a victim of the litigation system rather than an aggressor [L.A. Business Journal, NLJ, L.A. Times “The Envelope” on company’s suit against Swedish documentary filmmaker; underlying banana-worker pesticide litigation scandal; CJAC]
- Virginia Postrel on kidney donation, altruism, and policy [The Atlantic]
- Grown kids appear in court to exonerate dad who spent nearly 20 years in prison on false charges of abusing them [The Columbian, Wash., via Obscure Store] More: Coyote.
“Adopting hospital quality measures too quickly can harm patients”
Wachter’s World (via KevinMD) reports on what can happen when promising innovations are too rapidly accorded the status of obligatory standards of care.
W.V. doc who generated 124 malpractice claims
Yes, he’s back in court: Dr. John A. King is now suing, for $50 million, the lawyer he hired to sue the three law firms that represented him previously. “King has an extensive history of suing hospitals who terminated his privileges, medical boards who took away his licenses and lawyers he hired to represent him.” Putnam General Hospital, where he previously practiced, and HCA have paid out around $100 million to settle claims against King. [Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail].