Posts Tagged ‘hospitals’
Nannyism watch: Canada mulls speed governors
“Canadian auto regulators are testing a system that would enforce speed limits by making it harder to push down the car’s gas pedal once the speed limit is passed, according to a newspaper report. The system being tested by Transport Canada, the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Department of Transportation, uses a global positioning satellite device installed in the car to monitor the car’s speed and position. If the car begins to significantly exceed the speed limit for the road on which it’s travelling the system responds by making it harder to depress the gas pedal, according to a story posted on the Toronto Globe and Mail’s website.” (“Device stops speeders from inside car”, CNNMoney, Dec. 4). Kaimipono Wenger at Concurring Opinions (Dec. 4) says the idea “seems wrong on so many levels it’s hard to list them all” and should not necessarily be viewed as pro-safety, since speeding in some circumstances — say, on rural roads in an emergency on the way to a hospital — can be vital to life and limb.
The government of Great Britain looked at the idea a few years ago (“Go slow — like it or not”, BBC, Oct. 23, 1998; “‘Spy in the sky’ targets speeders”, BBC, Jan. 4, 2000). A 2002 research paper (PDF) funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation on New England traffic recommended speed governors as the “most effective way of achieving speed compliance” (p. 4). Last year a Gallup poll for NHTSA (PDF) found that the idea was generally not popular with the public, commanding only 35 percent support (pp. 11, 64); Eastern, female, Hispanic and black respondents were relatively favorably disposed. Back on Oct. 26, 1999 we took note of a report that trial lawyers were taking a look at trying to get courts to hold automakers liable for not installing speed governors on vehicles.
Cerebral palsy verdict of the day: Memorial Hospital in St. Clair County, $7.1M
Rex Carr (Nov. 6 and links therein) was the plaintiffs’ attorney. Memorial Hospital released a statement:
Memorial Hospital and its over 600 nursing professionals and 300 Medical Staff physicians are obviously disappointed with the jury’s decision in this case.
As in many local court proceedings, Memorial has identified a significant number of important legal issues in this case and will appeal the decision.
Memorial is confident that either the Appellate Court or Supreme Court will agree that a substantial number of serious errors justify a retrial or directed defense verdict.
Expert testimony in this case conclusively determined that Brandon Bauer suffered a rare genetic disorder, hyperinsulinemia. This genetic disorder, despite any form of treatment, is many times fatal and very often results in severe brain damage.
Memorial also concurs with the expert testimony presented that nursing professionals and the physician from Belleville Emergency Physicians, PC did their best to care for their patient under clinically-difficult circumstances and rendered only the high-quality care for which they are so well known.
The medical and scientific evidence and expert testimony in this case clearly do not support this verdict. Memorial has no choice but to appeal this decision because of the serious implications it has for Memorial and all other hospitals and physicians in this area.
If such verdicts are left unchallenged, several hundred healthcare jobs will ultimately be lost from the community.
In addition, it will be more difficult, if not impossible, to recruit replacements for the large number of physicians who have fled this area during the last three years because of high malpractice premiums and fear of unfair treatment in some local courts.
(William Lamb, “Jury awards $7.1 million to parents of boy who developed cerebral palsy”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 5 (via ICJL News)).
On the town
This evening I took advantage of the hospitality of the folks at TechnoLawyer.com who secured the use of a dandy bar in Tribeca for the launch of a new eBook they are giving away to their customers, “BlawgWorld 2006: Capital of Big Ideas“. The book is discussed at length over at Evan Schaeffer’s today by Ted, Mike Cernovich and others. I enjoyed meeting other guests, among them Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith Esq. and Arnie Herz of LegalSanity, both of which blogs are deservedly popular among practicing lawyers.
Taxpayers on hook for $60.9M cerebral palsy case
Lawyers blame Jacksonville Navy hospital doctors for Kevin Bravo Rodriguez’s severe cerebral palsy (Nov. 12; Nov. 4, 2004; Feb. 2, 2004; Aug. 13, 2003; etc.). He cannot see, speak, swallow, or move his arms and legs, and will not live past age 21. Modern technology saved Bravo Rodriguez’s life after he was born without a heart-rate or respiration, and keeps him alive with 24-hour care that was adjudged to cost $10 million over the course of short life. The verdict included $50 million in pain and suffering. Because this was a Federal Tort Claims Act case, a judge was the finder of fact, and Carter-appointee Senior District Judge Jose A. Gonzalez can be credited with the largest FTCA verdict in history, which (including the millions in jackpot attorneys’ fees) will come out of taxpayers’ pockets unless it is reversed on the government’s promised appeal. (Nikki Waller and Noaki Schwartz, “A bittersweet $60.9 million”, Miami Herald, Nov. 25). This is attorney Ervin Gonzalez’s second appearance in Overlawyered this year for a $60 million+ verdict—see July 10.
Outdoor smoking bans
Advancing toward prohibition, 25 feet at a time:
On Tuesday, Washington state voters will consider the first statewide ban on smoking within 25 feet of buildings that prohibit smoking….
Limits on smoking outdoors have taken off in the past two years, says Maggie Hopkins of the American Non-smokers’ Rights Foundation.
Among the examples: many beaches in California (see Jun. 24, 2004), and hospital grounds in Iowa: “Patients and visitors will have to trek off hospital grounds — one campus is 44 acres — to smoke.” (Dennis Cauchon, “Smoke-free zones extend outdoors”, USA Today, Nov. 1). See Jul. 27 (smoking while driving); Aug. 15 (prison terms proposed for smoking too close to buildings).
“Trial Lawyers Inc. — Health Care”
Last week the Manhattan Institute (with which I’m associated) released Trial Lawyers Inc. — Health Care, the third in its series of “annual reports” on the doings of the litigation industry. (The first two were a general nationwide report under the title of “Trial Lawyers Inc.“, and a report on trial lawyers’ doings in California). While I can’t take credit for the new report — Jim Copland, who heads the Institute’s Center for Legal Policy, is the one to thank — I can report that the new publication is chock full of valuable facts and statistics about the health care litigation scene, and is must reading for anyone who wants to follow the subject. Subdivision/chapters include:
Drugs and Medical Devices
Special Focus: Vaccines
Medical Malpractice
Special Focus: Hospitals
Health Maintenance Organizations
Government Relations/Public Relations
For our posts on these issues, see our “Bad Medicine” pages, first and second series, and (for pharmaceutical matters) our products liability page. The new TLI report, again, begins here in HMTL form, and can be downloaded in PDF form here.
Katrina: “hospitals likely to face litigation”
“As floodwaters consumed their hospitals, nurses and doctors throughout New Orleans took heroic measures to save hundreds of patients. But could the facilities’ owners still be liable for the effects of the disaster? Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. may be among several companies soon facing litigation over deaths inside their hospitals in the hurricane-stricken region.” (Sudeep Reddy, Dallas Morning News, Sept. 15 (reg); Rene Goux (Memorial Medical Center CEO), “At the bottom of the ‘bowl'”, Sept. 12; “In flood, hospital becomes a hell”, Sept. 4)(via Donna Rovito).
Caesarean sections in Australia
Use of the procedure seems to be following the American path, “and could soon hit a record of 32 per cent of deliveries — far higher than in countries such as Britain and New Zealand.” Among the factors:
Andrew Pesce, consultant obstetrician at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, told the conference litigation was a factor in the caesarean rates.
No obstetrician had ever been sued for doing a caesarean, while some of the largest medical negligence payouts — including the $11 million Calandre Simpson case in 2001- – followed claims the doctor should have performed a caesarean section earlier, Dr Pesce said.
(Adam Cresswell, “Midwives left ‘powerless’ by soaring caesar births”, The Australian, Sept. 5). See Nov. 29, 2004; Jul. 18 and Aug. 13, 2003; and Feb. 5, 2001.
Letter from Louisiana: triage and EMTALA
Longtime reader C.G. Moore, a 3L at Tulane Law who lives in St. Tammany Parish outside New Orleans, writes in to say:
My wife, 4 mo. old son, and I survived [Hurricane Katrina] (we live in St. Tammany parish, about 10 miles from lake Pontchartrain). I noticed you had a link to WWL television’s plea for medical personnel to assist the victims. I was in a unique position during the storm and afterward: my wife is an ER doctor, and we sheltered at the hospital where she works.
The doctors and nurses were incredible. They worked non-stop, under incredibly stressful conditions. Many didn’t know where their loved ones were, or whether they had survived, and there was no way to contact the outside world. Many lost everything to the flood waters, tornadoes, and fallen trees. And still, they worked 12-hour shifts (sometimes longer).
But one of the first hurdles they had to contend with was the effects of EMTALA in a disaster situation. [EMTALA is a federal law under which hospitals can be sued if they turn away patients needing emergency medical treatment. — ed.] Under EMTALA, ER physicians are cautious to the point of absurdity. But as the hospital quickly filled to capacity with seriously ill and injured patients, the ER was able to attend to life-or-death situations only. Strict triage procedures were needed to separate the “worried well” from the dying. Medical care really was a limited commodity. Although the magnitude of the catastrophe was clear to all, some patients and their families couldn’t understand that minor boo-boos didn’t merit immediate care (much less admission to the hospital, where it was air-conditioned and they could get a hot meal).
So, my concern is this: once the rubble is cleared and the power restored, the plaintiffs’ lawyers will ooze back into the scene — that this was a disaster situation won’t matter one iota — and they’ll use EMTALA to file lawsuit after lawsuit.
I really hope I’m wrong. But only time will tell.