Med Mal News

Hospital to Use D&O Insurance to Pay Families of Victims of Homicidal Nurse

Somerset Medical Center, a New Jersey facility where nurse Charles Cullen killed 13 patients, has won the right to tap a $15 million directors', officers' and trustees' liability insurance policy to fund its settlement with victims' families. The hospital settled with them for an undisclosed amount in 2008, but ran into difficulty when it tried to claim against its policy with Executive Risk Indemnity Inc. a unit of Chubb Insurance. On March 22, New Jersey's Appellate Division agreed with a Somerset County judge that the policy's bodily injury exclusion doesn't apply, since the underlying suits were based on the hospital's alleged negligence in hiring and supervising Cullen, not on his homicidal acts. Cullen admitted killing 29 people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and trying to kill six others between 1988 and 2003, when he was arrested, while still employed at Somerset Medical. Most of his victims were old and sick and died as a result of intravenous overdoses of medication.

'Zone of Danger' Standard to Be Tested

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has granted an en banc rehearing in the case of a man who wants to sue a hospital for emotional damages after he was misdiagnosed with HIV. Both the D.C. Superior Court and Court of Appeals earlier dismissed Terry Hedgepeth's case on the basis that, because he did not actually have HIV, he was never in a “zone of physical danger” and was therefore ineligible to collect damages for emotional distress. Still, for five years Hedgepeth thought that he had HIV, and his suit alleged that he suffered depression because of his diagnosis. This, he claimed, lead to suicidal thoughts, the loss of his job, relationship problems and illegal drug use. The “zone of danger” standard was set in the 1990 case of Williams v. Baker, which said damages for emotional distress were appropriate “if the plaintiff was in the zone of physical danger and was caused by defendant's negligence to fear for his or her own safety, the plaintiff may recover for negligent infliction of serious emotional distress.“

NJ Doctors Group Sues to Halt Health Care Reform Law

A New Jersey doctors' organization has gone to court to block implementation of the health-care bill signed in March by President Barack Obama, claiming it is unconstitutional. The suit, New Jersey Physicians, Inc. v. Obama, was one of at least three filed on the same day over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Thirteen state attorneys general sued in federal court in Florida, and Virginia's attorney general sued there. The New Jersey doctors' complaint calls the new law “an unprecedented effort to collectivize health care nationally“ and “to mandate that individual citizens of the sovereign states purchase insurance to pay for this collectivized health care.“ The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional, permanently enjoin its enforcement and award legal fees and costs for the action.

NRC Fine Against Philadelphia VA Is One of Largest Ever Proposed

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a fine of $227,500 against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) due to what it called in a release “an unprecedented number of medical errors” associated with the implantation of radioactive seeds in prostate cancer patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia. The agency found that in the years between 2002 and 2008, 166 such implants were performed, and that 97 of these were performed incorrectly. The fine is one of the largest ever proposed by the NRC, which found that the facility lacked written procedures for ensuring that the right treatment was given, among other lapses.

“This substantial fine emphasizes the high significance of violations at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center that resulted in close to 100 of our nation's veterans receiving substandard treatments,” said Mark Satorius, regional administrator for the NRC's Region III office in Lisle, Ill. “The lack of management oversight, the lack of safety culture to ensure patients are treated safely, the potential consequences to the veterans who came to this facility and the sheer number of medical events show the gravity of these violations.”

Hospital to Use D&O Insurance to Pay Families of Victims of Homicidal Nurse

Somerset Medical Center, a New Jersey facility where nurse Charles Cullen killed 13 patients, has won the right to tap a $15 million directors', officers' and trustees' liability insurance policy to fund its settlement with victims' families. The hospital settled with them for an undisclosed amount in 2008, but ran into difficulty when it tried to claim against its policy with Executive Risk Indemnity Inc. a unit of Chubb Insurance. On March 22, New Jersey's Appellate Division agreed with a Somerset County judge that the policy's bodily injury exclusion doesn't apply, since the underlying suits were based on the hospital's alleged negligence in hiring and supervising Cullen, not on his homicidal acts. Cullen admitted killing 29 people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and trying to kill six others between 1988 and 2003, when he was arrested, while still employed at Somerset Medical. Most of his victims were old and sick and died as a result of intravenous overdoses of medication.

'Zone of Danger' Standard to Be Tested

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has granted an en banc rehearing in the case of a man who wants to sue a hospital for emotional damages after he was misdiagnosed with HIV. Both the D.C. Superior Court and Court of Appeals earlier dismissed Terry Hedgepeth's case on the basis that, because he did not actually have HIV, he was never in a “zone of physical danger” and was therefore ineligible to collect damages for emotional distress. Still, for five years Hedgepeth thought that he had HIV, and his suit alleged that he suffered depression because of his diagnosis. This, he claimed, lead to suicidal thoughts, the loss of his job, relationship problems and illegal drug use. The “zone of danger” standard was set in the 1990 case of Williams v. Baker, which said damages for emotional distress were appropriate “if the plaintiff was in the zone of physical danger and was caused by defendant's negligence to fear for his or her own safety, the plaintiff may recover for negligent infliction of serious emotional distress.“

NJ Doctors Group Sues to Halt Health Care Reform Law

A New Jersey doctors' organization has gone to court to block implementation of the health-care bill signed in March by President Barack Obama, claiming it is unconstitutional. The suit, New Jersey Physicians, Inc. v. Obama, was one of at least three filed on the same day over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Thirteen state attorneys general sued in federal court in Florida, and Virginia's attorney general sued there. The New Jersey doctors' complaint calls the new law “an unprecedented effort to collectivize health care nationally“ and “to mandate that individual citizens of the sovereign states purchase insurance to pay for this collectivized health care.“ The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional, permanently enjoin its enforcement and award legal fees and costs for the action.

NRC Fine Against Philadelphia VA Is One of Largest Ever Proposed

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a fine of $227,500 against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) due to what it called in a release “an unprecedented number of medical errors” associated with the implantation of radioactive seeds in prostate cancer patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia. The agency found that in the years between 2002 and 2008, 166 such implants were performed, and that 97 of these were performed incorrectly. The fine is one of the largest ever proposed by the NRC, which found that the facility lacked written procedures for ensuring that the right treatment was given, among other lapses.

“This substantial fine emphasizes the high significance of violations at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center that resulted in close to 100 of our nation's veterans receiving substandard treatments,” said Mark Satorius, regional administrator for the NRC's Region III office in Lisle, Ill. “The lack of management oversight, the lack of safety culture to ensure patients are treated safely, the potential consequences to the veterans who came to this facility and the sheer number of medical events show the gravity of these violations.”