Med Mal News

The recently opened Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety, a joint venture of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and Joint Commission Resources (JCR), has launched of its new Web site, www.jcipatientsafety.org. This site will serve as a central repository of resources and information related to all aspects of patient safety and can be used by patients, employers, physicians, nurses, and pharmacists — as well as all types of health care organizations worldwide. Health care organizations and health professionals will be able to use the center's Web site, for example, to find information on the most frequent types of reported sentinel events and their root causes; resources for understanding and meeting the National Patient Safety Goals; and Sentinel Event Alert newsletter recommendations. Patients and their families, as well as employers, will be able to use the center's Web site to obtain quality-related performance information on health care organizations.

Arizona Lawmakers Want to Help Doctors In Court

The Arizona State House and Senate have passed a bill that would impose stricter requirements on expert witness credentials and would give doctors greater access to plaintiffs' medical histories to aid them in fighting malpractice claims. The measure would also clarify that a physician's apology to a patient for a bad outcome cannot be treated as an admission of wrongdoing in court.

Not-For-Profit Nursing Homes Perform Better, Study Says

A Canadian study published in the April edition of Medical Care Research and Review finds that not-for-profit nursing homes in the United States have better patient care records than for-profit homes. University of Toronto researchers looked at 40 previous studies of nursing homes and found that not-for-profit institutions had fewer instances of certain injuries, such as bed sores, and that they were less likely to use medications to subdue patients.

Florida Lawmakers Clarify Med-Mal Amendments

After Florida's voters last year passed two constitutional amendments to protect consumers from bad doctors, questions remained as to how those laws would be implemented. Courts refused to apply them without further clarification. That clarification has now come: In late April, the State's House passed two bills, one to spell out how the so-called “three strikes” measure would work, and the other to explain the law that requires hospitals to release records about adverse events.

The “three strikes” bill, SB 940, passed without debate or opposition, explains that doctors will automatically lose their licenses only if they have had three judgments against them for medical malpractice; settlements won't count. One loophole would remain, however: If any of the three judgments are based on less than clear and convincing evidence, the state's Board of Medicine would have discretion not to pull the practitioner's license. The provisions of the new law will apply only to judgments rendered after Nov. 2, 2004, the date the constitutional amendment was passed.

In passing SB 938, Florida lawmakers interpreted the law dealing with release of adverse event reports to require such disclosure only to patients of the hospital from which the report is sought, and only if the event reported relates to the condition the patient has or has been treated for.

Groups Claim Language Issues At Hospitals Create Civil Rights Breach

Advocates for immigrants have brought a civil rights complaint to Elliot Spitzer, New York's Attorney General, against four New York City hospitals. The complaint, brought by the New York Immigration Coalition, Make the Road By Walking, the Latin American Integration Center, Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, the Legal Aid Society and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, claims that language barriers are preventing non-English speaking people from obtaining the care they need, in violation of state and federal law. In a statement, Margie McHugh, Executive Director of The New York Immigration Coalition, said, “We will not accept excuses when the death of a patient could have been avoided. No cry of poverty by New York's hospitals can excuse the suffering that immigrants are experiencing at the hands of these billion-dollar health care conglomerates.”

State Medical Boards: Study Ranks Hawaii Worst, Wyoming Best

On April 19, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen released its ranking of state medical boards, which was based on data from the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) that tallied the number of disciplinary actions taken against doctors in the years 2002-2004. States that disciplined doctors most often were ranked higher than those with fewer disciplinary actions, on the theory that doctors are making mistakes everywhere but that some states turn a blind eye while others do not. Hawaii, with 1.44 actions per 1000 physicians, was ranked lowest, followed by Delaware, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Maryland. Wyoming, with 10.04 serious actions per 1000 physicians, was ranked highest, followed by Kentucky, North Dakota, Alaska and Oklahoma. In a statement issued by the group, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said, “These data again raise serious questions about the extent to which patients in many of these states with poorer records of serious doctor discipline are being protected from physicians who might well be barred from practice in states with boards that are doing a better job of disciplining physicians. It is quite possible that patients are being injured or killed more often in states with poor doctor disciplinary records than in states with consistently high performance.”

Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety Announces New Web Site

The recently opened Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety, a joint venture of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and Joint Commission Resources (JCR), has launched of its new Web site, www.jcipatientsafety.org. This site will serve as a central repository of resources and information related to all aspects of patient safety and can be used by patients, employers, physicians, nurses, and pharmacists — as well as all types of health care organizations worldwide. Health care organizations and health professionals will be able to use the center's Web site, for example, to find information on the most frequent types of reported sentinel events and their root causes; resources for understanding and meeting the National Patient Safety Goals; and Sentinel Event Alert newsletter recommendations. Patients and their families, as well as employers, will be able to use the center's Web site to obtain quality-related performance information on health care organizations.

Arizona Lawmakers Want to Help Doctors In Court

The Arizona State House and Senate have passed a bill that would impose stricter requirements on expert witness credentials and would give doctors greater access to plaintiffs' medical histories to aid them in fighting malpractice claims. The measure would also clarify that a physician's apology to a patient for a bad outcome cannot be treated as an admission of wrongdoing in court.

Not-For-Profit Nursing Homes Perform Better, Study Says

A Canadian study published in the April edition of Medical Care Research and Review finds that not-for-profit nursing homes in the United States have better patient care records than for-profit homes. University of Toronto researchers looked at 40 previous studies of nursing homes and found that not-for-profit institutions had fewer instances of certain injuries, such as bed sores, and that they were less likely to use medications to subdue patients.

Florida Lawmakers Clarify Med-Mal Amendments

After Florida's voters last year passed two constitutional amendments to protect consumers from bad doctors, questions remained as to how those laws would be implemented. Courts refused to apply them without further clarification. That clarification has now come: In late April, the State's House passed two bills, one to spell out how the so-called “three strikes” measure would work, and the other to explain the law that requires hospitals to release records about adverse events.

The “three strikes” bill, SB 940, passed without debate or opposition, explains that doctors will automatically lose their licenses only if they have had three judgments against them for medical malpractice; settlements won't count. One loophole would remain, however: If any of the three judgments are based on less than clear and convincing evidence, the state's Board of Medicine would have discretion not to pull the practitioner's license. The provisions of the new law will apply only to judgments rendered after Nov. 2, 2004, the date the constitutional amendment was passed.

In passing SB 938, Florida lawmakers interpreted the law dealing with release of adverse event reports to require such disclosure only to patients of the hospital from which the report is sought, and only if the event reported relates to the condition the patient has or has been treated for.

Groups Claim Language Issues At Hospitals Create Civil Rights Breach

Advocates for immigrants have brought a civil rights complaint to Elliot Spitzer, New York's Attorney General, against four New York City hospitals. The complaint, brought by the New York Immigration Coalition, Make the Road By Walking, the Latin American Integration Center, Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, the Legal Aid Society and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, claims that language barriers are preventing non-English speaking people from obtaining the care they need, in violation of state and federal law. In a statement, Margie McHugh, Executive Director of The New York Immigration Coalition, said, “We will not accept excuses when the death of a patient could have been avoided. No cry of poverty by New York's hospitals can excuse the suffering that immigrants are experiencing at the hands of these billion-dollar health care conglomerates.”