Connecticut ruling protects doctors investigating abuse

The court said its action doesn't create a liability loophole for physicians.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Jan. 31, 2005.

Doctors in Connecticut who examine a child that the state suspects of being abused won't have the fear of a negligence or medical malpractice lawsuit hanging over their heads.

Connecticut's law, like those in most other states, clearly protects doctors who initially report suspected child abuse, even if it turns out that the child is not being abused. But a December 2004 Connecticut Supreme Court ruling took that protection a step further, applying the law to doctors who aren't the initial reporters but who examine a child at the request of the Dept. of Children and Families.

"The decision is reassuring and shows that there is protection in these situations," said emergency physician Gordon Van Nes, MD, the medical director at William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Conn.

Without such protection, physicians may be less willing to report suspected abuse and less willing to examine a child that the state suspects is abused, Dr. Van Nes said. The state's high court agreed with that logic in its recent ruling in Manifold v Ragaglia.

The case stemmed from a 2001 investigation. Based on an anonymous call from a pediatrician's office, the state sent a social worker to visit the home of a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. He noted that both children were dirty and had bruised foreheads and that the boy also had extensive bruises on his back and a rash on the front and back of his torso.