PROFESSIONHospital sued after pulling welcome matIn the Courts. By Tanya Albert, amednews staff. May 9, 2005. Are there any differences between a doctor choosing no longer to see a patient because of his or her disruptive behavior and a medical facility opting no longer to let its physicians and staff -- in nonemergency situations only -- treat a group of patients who sued it? It's an interesting question given the current medical liability climate that has left some physicians feeling like the patient is an enemy who could sue them at the drop of a hat. A federal court in Kentucky is grappling with a case that will in essence answer the question. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Owensboro Division, is considering a lawsuit asking whether a health system has the right to no longer serve a group of patients who sued it and a doctor who no longer works there. The story starts in February 2004. That's when a Kentucky Cabinet for Health Services inspection found insufficiencies in quality assurance in the Trover Clinic Foundation's radiology department. Trover is a network of clinics and a regional medical center that serves a 12-county area in western Kentucky. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' regional office told Trover to correct the problem or face losing federal funding. The health care network told CMS it would hire an outside physician to review about 1,200 images, the bulk of which were originally read between January 2003 and January 2004. In the end, roughly 6,000 to 7,000 images were re-read, and the radiologist's error rate was within the standard of care. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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The exam room where a meteorite hit a Virginia doctors' office has become the most requested room among patients, who joke about wearing hard hats to appointments.
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