La. ruling could hurt emergency care

Doctors ask Louisiana's high court to overturn a decision that would make it tougher to transfer emergency department patients to other hospitals.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Nov. 12, 2001.

If a Louisiana Court of Appeals ruling stands, physicians could be vulnerable to private lawsuits for their decisions to transfer patients who come into emergency departments.

And medical liability insurance policies would not cover the large jury awards doctors could be asked to pay. Louisiana's cap on malpractice damages wouldn't apply, either.

"If the decision stands, it would further put pressure on emergency department physicians making decisions," said AMA Trustee Donald J. Palmisano, MD, a physician-lawyer who practices in New Orleans. "It would have a chilling effect on emergency room decisions."

The defendants have appealed the ruling to the Louisiana Supreme Court. It is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Nov. 27. An amicus brief has been filed by the AMA, the Shreveport Medical Society, the Louisiana State Medical Society and several other parish medical societies in the state.

While other courts have not opened up physicians to private lawsuits for decisions that fall under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 or state "patient dumping" laws, the Louisiana Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit earlier this year created a new cause of action.

The court ruled that a man was allowed to sue a physician under the intentional tort of patient dumping. Most -- if not all -- traditional medical liability insurance policies don't cover costs physicians would encounter if they were found guilty of an intentional act. The policies usually only cover unintentional acts, under which malpractice claims fall. [...]