Nuggets of Tort “Reform”
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From Colorado, and particularly the Durango Herald, we get to see firsthand one of the truly significant problems with tort “reform.” Its supporters are not intelligent. The dead giveaway comes when the writer expresses his outrage that doctors are now forced to practice defensive medicine, when they should be practicing “offensive” medicine.
Well, you see, that “offensive” medicine is exactly what too many doctors have been practicing for too many years, which is why tort “reform,” which shields doctors and hospitals from accountability for their offenses to patients, is not a wise idea. It is “offensive” when a surgeon operates at the wrong site because he was too busy to perform a preoperative time out to verify the spot with the surgical team. It is “offensive” when that misstep seriously injures or kills the same patient. And it is especially “offensive” when tort “reform” imposes arbitrary limits on the amount of awards to such victims of medical malpractice at trial, often preventing realistic compensation, and always robbing the jury of its power and right to assess each case on its own merits, and act accordingly.
Meanwhile, hospitals continue to value profit over patient welfare, and act–or fail to act–accordingly. The Pop Tort has a heartbreaking round up of stories on the failure of New Orleans-area hospitals to outfit their facilities properly with generators in anticipation of flooding. Along came Katrina, and patients on life-support died slow, agonizing deaths when the power failed, and could not be replicated by other sources. Offensive? As one of the least intelligent of the tort “reformers” likes to say, “You betcha!!
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Frances Hogan said:
Does anyone know of a way to combat a negative decision by the Texas Medical board? I’ve been searching the internet for 2 hours and have found nothing! People on this board seem very informed, so I’m hoping someone will have an idea. My brother almost died because he was discharged from the hospital with an undiagnosed concussion and pneumonia 2 days after a car hit his motorcycle.
His family tried to get the hospital to not discharge him as it was evident to them that he was delirious. The hospital discharged him anyway. His family immediately drove him to Dallas, 2 hours away. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and a concussion and stayed in the second hospital 2 weeks. He sent this evidence to the Texas Medical board. He also sent both medical chart evidence and witness testimony that the doctor lied about seeing him on the day he was discharged.
The Texas Medical Board took 9 months to decide they would not let him sue the doctor for malpractice. In the Texas Medical Board letter, it states, “Dr. R— provided treatment that met the standard of care and his billing was appropriate.”
The 9 months of time ate up his statute of limitations and now he only has 6 weeks to appeal their negative decision.
(My brother was wearing his helmet. The accident was ruled by the police to be entirely the automobile driver’s fault–These are beside the point of dealing with the Texas Medical Board, but people always seem to want to know these things)
Any help would be much appreciated.
April 14th, 2010 at 7:33 pm