The TMA hates the Givens and Alsip opinions. The hospitals would prefer they did not exist, but were willing to accept some compromise as opposed to the outright reversal of the decisions sought by the TMA. This is what the hospitals worked out with the interested parties and the sponsors of…
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has released two opinions on the issue of apparent agency in a hospital setting. One case concerns an emergency room doctor, the other a radiologist. The law? Both decisions contain these paragraphs: "Apparent agency is essentially agency by estoppel. White v. Methodist Hosp., 844 S.W.2d…
Georgia’s med mal statute requires that when a complaint is filed the plaintiff must submit a medical authorization. The statute says that "the authorization shall provide that the attorney representing the defendant is authorized to obtain and disclose protected health information contained in medical records to facilitate the investigation, evaluation,…
This is no news to anyone who actually follows medical malpractice litigation, but it is nice to see that a person who has actually researched the issue confirms conventional wisdom accepted by everyone except lobbyists for the health care industry and the legislators they persuade. An article in Law.com reports on this…
It is getting worse. Healthgrades reports that the number of errors in our nation’s hospitals rose 3% over the years 2002 – 2005. From the press release: The HealthGrades study of 40.56 million Medicare hospitalization records over the years 2003 to 2005 … found: • Patient-safety incidents continue to rise in…
Amercicans for Insurance Reform have released a report that demonstrates that the "insurance crisis that hit doctors between 2001 and 2004 was not caused by claims, payouts or legal system excesses as the insurance industry claimed." Rather, this report concludes as follows: "Inflation-adjusted payouts per doctor not only failed to…
The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down that portion of legislation requiring a plaintiff in medical negligence cases to file affidavits of merit in medical malpractice cases within 30 days of filing the complaint or face dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint. The Court ruled that the statute imposed a requirement for commencement…
Part of the case evaluation process is a review of appropriate literature. A literature review is not enough – you still need as expert to testify that the protocols set forth in any given piece of literature represent the standard of care. But the existence of literature on point can…
The Kansas Supreme Court has stated that a patient injured as a result of alleged medical negligence can file suit under the state’s consumer protection act. The patient , Williamson, alleged that the defendant doctor "represented that the surgery he was recommending had a high likelihood of successfully relieving her…
It takes a tremendous amount of time and money to screen medical malpractice cases. Our office reviews over 700 cases per year and rejects over 95 percent of them over the phone. Of the remaining 5 percent most are rejected after review of the medical records and, if appropriate, consultation…