Tort crisis limits hospital services

Loved ones whose family members died or suffered because hospitals couldn't provide care say lawmakers need to fix the problem before others are injured.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. May 26, 2003.

For much of this medical liability crisis, the stories about hospitals closing trauma centers or diverting patients to other hospitals because they are experiencing a physician shortage have been mostly anecdotal, making it hard to pinpoint how widespread these problems have become.

Now the numbers are in.

A majority -- 53.1% to be exact -- of the more than 1,000 hospitals surveyed in the 18 states the American Medical Association has determined are in the middle of a medical liability crisis say it's more difficult for them to recruit physicians.

About 45% of the hospitals in those states say high medical liability insurance premiums have forced them to cut emergency department coverage.

Nearly 35% of hospitals say insurance woes have caused a negative impact on their ability to provide services, particularly trauma care and obstetrics.

And nearly 19% of hospitals say professional liability premiums have had a "significant" impact on their community's access to care.

"I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel," said Curtis Rooney, counsel and senior associate director for the American Hospital Assn., which conducted the survey.

Hospitals in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia were surveyed. The AMA said those are crisis states because high insurance premiums or an inability to get insurance has caused physicians there to retire early, discontinue high-risk procedures or leave to practice in states with lower insurance rates.