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PubMedDate not supplied

Emergency medical services liability litigation in the United States: 1987 to 1992.

INTRODUCTION: Although emergency medical services (EMS) liability litigation is a concern of many prehospital health care providers, there have been no studies of these legal cases nationwide and no local case studies since 1987. METHODS: A retrospective case series was obtained from a computerized database of trial court cases filed against EMS agencies nationwide. All legal cases that met the inclusion criteria were included in the study sample. These cases must have involved either ambulance collisions (AC) or patient care (PC) incidents, and they must have been closed between 1987 and 1992. RESULTS: There were 76 cases that met the inclusion criteria. Half of these cases involved an AC, and the other cases alleged negligence of a PC encounter. Thirty (78.9%) of the plaintiffs in the AC cases were other motorists, and 35 (92.1%) of the plaintiffs in the PC cases were EMS patients. Almost half of the cases named an individual (usually an emergency medical technician or paramedic) as a codefendant. Thirty-one (40.8%) of the cases were closed without any payment to the plaintiff. There were five cases with plaintiffs' awards or settlements greater than [US] $1 million. Most (71.0%) of the ACs occurred in an intersection or when one vehicle rear-ended another vehicle. The most common negligence allegations in the PC cases were arrival delay, inadequate assessment, inadequate treatment, patient transport delay, and no patient transport. CONCLUSION: Risk management for EMS requires specific knowledge of the common sources of EMS liability litigation. This sample of recent legal cases provides the common allegations of negligence. REcommendations to decrease the legal risk of EMS agencies and prehospital providers are suggested.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Legal evaluation of bone tumors].

Three topics are of major importance in the legal evaluation of bone tumors: The questions of medical liability, of causality and of medical evaluation. Concerning medical liability, the legal consequences of proven cases of malpractice are stressed. A causal connection between an accused trauma and the occurrence of a malignant bone tumor can be denied in nearly all circumstances. Due to the well known occurrence of a secondary sarcoma, the irradiation of a benign bone tumor or tumorlike lesion is strongly disfavored. In cases of medical evaluation, patients with malignant bone tumors should be judged by the same criteria as patients with any other diseases and impairments.

Bone Neoplasms↗
PubMed2004

Sexual harassment in medical education: liability and protection.

The prevalence and frequency of sexual harassment in medical education is well documented. On the graduation questionnaire administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2003, 15% of medical students reported experiences of mistreatment during medical school. On items that specifically address sexual mistreatment, over 2% of students reported experiencing gender-based exclusion from training opportunities, and unwanted sexual advances and offensive sexist comments from school personnel. Sexual harassment of medical trainees by faculty supervisors is obviously unethical and may also be illegal under education discrimination laws. In two cases in 1998 and 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified that schools may be held liable under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 for the sexual harassment of their students. In 2001, the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education released revised policy guidelines on sexual harassment that reflect the Supreme Court rulings. Medical school administrators should undertake formal assessments of the educational environment in their training programs as a first step toward addressing the problem of sexual harassment. The authors recommend that medical schools implement measures to both prevent and remedy sexual harassment in their training programs. These constructive approaches include applying faculty and student education, establishing a system for notification and response, and creating an institutional structure to provide continuous evaluation of the educational environment.

Clinical Clerkship↗
PubMed2002

The liability of medical directors for utilization review decisions.

Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) have turned to numerous cost-containment measures to combat rising healthcare costs. One of the most common is the use of utilization review to ascertain whether a recommended mode of treatment is "medically necessary." When the medical director of an MCO determines that care recommended by a patient's treating physician is not medically necessary and not eligible for coverage (and, as a result, potentially unattainable due to cost), the stage is set for litigation. In such situations, medical directors may become potentially liable for disciplinary action by their state medical licensing board as well as lawsuits for malpractice or negligence. However, plaintiffs wishing to recover damages for improper determinations of this nature or state boards trying to discipline these physicians, face the hurdles of the preemptive force of ERISA, and state doctrines to the effect that corporations (and, derivatively, their medical directors) cannot practice medicine and therefore cannot be liable for malpractice. Conflicting decisions and opinions make it impossible at the present time to have a settled expectation regarding the potential liability of medical directors in this context, although the law appears to be moving toward the treatment of utilization review as medical decisionmaking; therefore, it appears likely that the activities of medical directors increasingly will face state oversight--including the imposition of common law liability in appropriate situations.

Decision Making, Organizational↗
PubMed1994

The value of liability in medical malpractice.

In this paper I estimate the strength of medical providers' incentive to avoid negligent medical care, taking account of the facts that many victims of medical malpractice do not file claims, many nonvictims do file claims, legal costs are high, and the legal system makes errors. Despite these problems, the negligence system creates a strong financial incentive for medical providers to avoid substandard care: The average cost of negligence is $135,000 per malpractice claim involving negligence and $3,500 per occurrence of negligent medical care. These substantial penalties suggest that if liability were abolished without adopting effective alternative sanctions for negligent medical care, the number and cost of medically caused injuries and deaths could rise sharply.

Consumer Advocacy↗