Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

The Baltimore Sun published an important front-page article yesterday on hospital errors in Maryland.

The premise of the article is a simple yet different approach to medical mistakes in Maryland hospitals.  It goes like this.  We have about 400,000 patients who are killed every year by medical malpractice.  

How are Maryland hospitals faring?  We don’t know.  There is a major epidemic that kills enough people in this county to fill Camden Yards 10 times a year.  Malpractice that causes serious injury could fill Camden Yards over 100 times (4,000,000) a year.  Yet we have no quality way of estimating how Maryland is faring.  Why is this? The hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies do not provide this data to us.

Said differently, we are all particularly those of us that are young or old – vulnerable to this grave risk.  We face other risks, of course.  Heart disease, cancer, motor vehicle accidents, diabetes, all pose substantial risks of death.  With these risks, we can sift through the data, understand the risks, and do what we can.  We quit smoking, eat better, wear seat belts, and so forth.

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One of the great selling points of caps in medical malpractice cases is that it encourages doctors to come to your state to practice.  Every state, particularly in jurisdictions with rural areas where access and availability to doctors is a prominent concern, want to attract a healthy supply of doctors to their state.  The thinking it is that doctors will flee to states where the litigation climate is more favorable to doctors.   A new study suggests this oft cited canard support tort reform is 100% true.  But not in a good way for patients.

A Notre Dame economist published a study titled “Medical Malpractice Reform, the Supply of Physicians, and Adverse Selection,” Journal of Law and Economics” that found that “when a county’s neighboring state passes a cap on noneconomic damages, the supply of physicians falls by 4 percent” in that county.”   Tort reform advocates are nodding their heads vigorously.

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One hot button issue in Maryland medical malpractice cases today is the circumstances under which defense lawyers can speak to Plaintiff’s treating doctor.  For years, this was not an issue.  If a defense lawyer wanted to talk to a treating doctor, she would just pick up the phone and call.  This was a powerful tool for malpractice defense lawyers because (1) you always want to know what a treating doctor — or any witness — will say before the doctor testifies, and (2) it gives the defense lawyer a chance to take part in shaping the doctor’s testimony.

HIPAA changed all of this in 1996.   HIPAA requires that a doctor “may disclose protected health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding [i]n response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal, provided that the covered entity discloses only the protected health information expressly authorized by such order.”  45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e)(1)(i).

So that settles it, right?   In most states, yes.   If this is current, 38 states prohibit ex parte conduct, and another six permit informal interviews with significant restrictions.

Why This Fight Continues in Maryland

Yet in Maryland, the battle still rages.  Defense lawyers argue that under Maryland law once a patient places his or her medical care and treatment at issue in a civil action filed against a health care provider, all health care providers shall disclose all information in medical records and/or health-related information to another health care provider’s legal counsel.   Specifically, Md. Code Health Gen. § 4-306(b)(3) provides a statutory right to ex parte communications.  Actually,  I think the statute provides only for the disclosure of written medical records, as they are defined in Md. Code Health Gen. § 4-301(h).

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In Valentine-Bowers v. Retina Group of Washington, a new medical malpractice case decided by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals,  the plaintiff alleged that her physician failed to monitor a problem with her eye that caused her to lose vision in that eye.  It is a serious injury for a young woman.  But this case is not about the underlying merits of the claim, it is about the things you have to do to get a medical negligence claim to a jury.

The case starts with the defendant serving discovery on the plaintiff.  The plaintiff did not respond in a timely fashion.  Judge Douglas R. M. Nazarian, a relative newcomer to the court, acknowledged this failure is commonplace.

Her failure to comply with the deadline is unremarkable—parties routinely miss this deadline and litigators know that absolute compliance is not always possible (although they do, and should, expect at least a request for an extension and a good faith deadline in return).

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Justice in Malpractice Cases Is Expensive

Every single day we get phone calls from prospective clients who want to bring a medical malpractice case.   We probably do a full investigation in 5% of these cases and sue in half of those cases.

Why so low?  In most cases, we cannot pursue the claim not because there was no harm and potential malpractice but because the value is too low to justify what can be a six-figure plus investment before trial.  I feel bad about this.   But it really is economic suicide for a malpractice law firm who works cases with the detail that we do – if that sounds self-serving it is, but it is also true –  to take cases where we think the verdict would be less than $500,000.

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Hollander issued an interesting ruling today in Lopez-Krist v. Salvagno that deals with the actual and apparent agency in the independent contractor doctor at the hospital.

This is a tragic case where a 14-year-old boy suffered a broken leg. There were concerns about the blood supply to the leg. They called in an orthopedic doctor who did not identify himself as an independent contractor.

You really can’t fault the doctor for this, right? He is talking to a parent of an injured boy. They don’t want to hear about the nuances of who the doctor works for. Just get my boy better.

The doctor recommends trying to reduce the fracture and realign the bone. Parent signs informed consent form with the hospital’s name and logo on it that makes agency unclear. After the surgery, the boy returned to the hospital, and the doctor did not order a CT or an angiogram or seek a vascular consult. There’s more, but you know by now what matters. The boy ends up losing his leg.

Both parties filed summary judgment motions on agency.

Interrogatory Goof Up

The hospital argued plaintiffs’ response to agency interrogatory provided nothing to support their contention of a clear or actual master-servant relationship between the hospital and the orthopedic doctor. Yet plaintiffs came armed with all sort of affidavits and other evidence for time for the summary judgment motion.

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Really tough opinion for medical malpractice plaintiffs in Maryland was issued in U.S. District Court last week.

Tangent #1: Why Isn’t This Case in State Court?

Technicalities are abound in malpractice cases

As a preliminary matter, it is complete garbage that this case is in federal court in the first place. The plaintiff, in this case, is, euphemistically, a guest of the state of Maryland. The defendant is a Missouri corporation under contract with the state to provide health care services to inmates. No one says they should get hugs, but we can all agree our prisoners need competent medical care?

I can’t figure out why the health care providers were not sued individually. But it seems crazy that a corporation can come to Maryland and perform health care services and not be amenable to suit in state court. Couldn’t the state require corporations who are treating Maryland patients to consent to jurisdiction in state court? I realize we are talking about prisoners and most people in Maryland and too busy fuming that they get to watch cable television, but this is a larger question. Moreover, are there not any Maryland corporations who could do this work?

Tangent #2: We Butcher Our Prisoners and We Know It

Anyway, this is a failure to diagnose his cancer that caused Plaintiff to require surgery and, more importantly, a colostomy bag. That’s an actual case. You know, we – our law firm – largely blows off these prisoner malpractice cases because you usually have an unsympathetic plaintiff who, let’s be honest, is more likely to lie about what the records will show when you first speak to them on an intake. This is probably a smart move for us in terms of resources but a terrible choice in the overall arc of justice because you are kidding yourself if you don’t think prisoners are not being butchered by medical malpractice all over this country.

Okay, Let’s Talk About the Actual Case

Okay, I need to stop the tangents and get back to the case. Plaintiff filed suit in Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office and filed an expert report and certificate of merit by a qualified doctor. He then waived out of arbitration, which is the customary practice, and filed suit in federal court.

The defendant moved, as malpractice defendants are wont to do, to dismiss the suit because Plaintiff’s certificate of merit and report were insufficient because it did not articulate the appropriate standard of care or detail how the health care providers departed from it.

I’m not sure that is entirely true. The expert report says:

It is my opinion that a more thorough investigation of [Plaintiff’s] complaints should have been performed in early 2005, and that had such an investigation been performed, it likely would have revealed a developing colon cancer, allowing for more prompt intervention and treatment. The delay in diagnosis also delayed treatment and allowed [Plaintiff’s] cancer to progress during the intervening period and therefore caused him some injury.

But the court agreed that a more precise statement was required and dismissed the case.

Can We All Agree Maryland Law on This Is Dumb, Right?

As a threshold, we are about to debate a dumb law that places form well ahead of substance. If justice were a part of the equation, this case is a no-brainer and the case would either go on or the plaintiff would be required to provide a more detailed report.

What I wrote about this case – and what I wish I could write – is that this kind of insanity could not be what the Maryland legislature had in mind. But, let’s be honest: it might be exactly what they had in mind. Hat tip to MedChi lobbyists everywhere. Well played. Continue reading

I used to write a lot on this blog about the myths that surround medical malpractice in Maryland and throughout this country.

I’ve largely jumped off the soapbox because I realized something: no one is listening. Most readers of this blog are digging into those kinds of posts they already either agree or disagree with, and I’m not changing anyone’s mind. So it just feels like a fool’s errand to keep trying.

Max Kennerly’s Blog Post

Max Kennerly didn’t get this memo and writes a really nice post (that is no longer available) today shedding more light on the reality of this epidemic, one that we have not made a real dent into despite a lot of smart people trying to help solve the problem.

One issue Max talks about is the crazy paradox of doctors saying, “The problem is defensive medicine. I order my patient tests they don’t need and might subject them to harm because I want to cover myself against lawsuits even though I have malpractice coverage.” Here is one saying almost exactly this. It seems like an unbelievably self-incriminating statement that some doctors blithely give all the time. They could at least throw us a bone and show enough self-awareness to acknowledge the insanity of it.

I believe, as Max does, that most doctors put their patients first and order the exact amount of testing and treatment they need. In fact, I think defensive medicine is a problem primarily because doctors care so much for their patients; they want what is best for them regardless of the cost. Is this a problem? Maybe on a macro-level. But we have bigger problems than the byproducts of doctors caring too much about their patients.

(2023 Update: There is better data now on the idea that doctors are performing unnecessary tests. So maybe some of my “doctors are good people who would not provide unnecessary tests of people to protect themselves” optimism may have been a bit ill-founded.)

Doctors also practice defensive medicine because they don’t want to be blamed for hurting their patients outside of the litigation fears. Forget lawsuits, can you imagine being blamed for the death of another person? Whether the accuser is right or wrong, there has to be an unbearable pain that comes with that.

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Last summer, we were talking about the $55 million cerebral palsy malpractice verdict against Johns Hopkins. This summer the verdict – which was reduced to $28 million – is hanging by a thread after the Maryland Court of Special Appeals overturned the verdict. Unless the Maryland high court sees the case different, this case will go back to the trial court in Baltimore to start all over again.

New Trial in Baltimore Birth Injury Case

This appeal hinged on the decision by Baltimore City Circuit Judge Marcus Z. Shar – considered a top judge by plaintiffs and defendants alike – to exclude evidence of the negligence of the midwife before the baby got to Hopkins.

The judge’s logic was that it really did not matter why the child was in a tough spot.  So whether or not another health care provider created the crisis, the ultimate issue is whether Hopkins could have saved the child from these awful birth injuries if it had not deviated from the standard of care. Judge Shar found that:

[T]he defense was not prevented and did, in fact, present evidence that the midwife’s conduct was dangerous under the circumstances, why it was dangerous under the circumstances that it caused the damages, and how it caused the damages.

Defense was free to vigorously argue that the midwife’s conduct was the proximate cause. They were, however, prevented from characterizing the conduct as “negligent.” Telling the jury that a nonparty is negligent as opposed to how the conduct affected what happened to the plaintiff would have been prejudicial and not relevant to the case.

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We have been compiling jury verdict information on our website recently so I have been looking through several jury verdicts.

Someone needs to do a study of the statistical differences in outcomes in medical malpractice lawsuits against foreign doctors and those born in the United States. I’m telling you, I might look at this in an unscientific way, but the difference just seems to jump off the pages at you.  One in four doctors in the country are foreign born.  From the search I just did, it seems like more than half of the million verdicts in medical malpractice cases were against foreign-born doctors.  I have never noticed this or thought about it until about an hour ago.

Okay, so why is this? The first theory is that American colleges and medical schools are just better and they are putting out better doctors than those schooled abroad. I’m sure this is true to a point. But I’ll bet you if you thin sliced it further, you would find that the same non-American doctors who went to college and medical school here still perform worse at trial than American-born physicians.