News in brief - Nov. 6, 2006

Sports come before emergency care - Age-related driving tutorial available for doctors, office staff - Fla. verdict could be biggest medical liability award the state has seen - New Calif. law stops big payouts for egg donors, adds protections - Study: No link between work-hour limits and improved surgical care

Sports come before emergency care

Men's visits to the emergency department increase significantly after televised sporting events, according to a study presented in October at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians in New Orleans.

Over three years, a researcher examined ED registration patterns at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore after 796 sporting events. The number of men seeking emergency care increased after all the sporting events.

There were about 50% more men in the ED after a professional football game than during the game. After a baseball game, 30% to 40% more men sought care.

A study in the October 2005 Annals of Emergency Medicine found that when the Boston Red Sox were winning pivotal games in their postseason run in 2004, visits to Boston EDs dipped as much as 15%. Fans apparently thought it was more important to watch their team on TV than worry about charging off to the hospital, the study found.

Age-related driving tutorial available for doctors, office staff

Physicians can access a free online continuing medical education tutorial, "Age-Related Driving Disorders, for Physicians," that details how doctors can help prevent common health impairments from becoming limitations that affect older adults' driving.

The course also provides information on age-related traffic safety issues, medical conditions that influence driving, legal issues for physicians, screening tools to identify aging driver conditions and referral resources. The tutorial can be used to train staff how to screen for age-related driving disorders.

The course, developed by the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and the California State Office of Traffic Safety, is online tutorials.eldersafety.org/.

Fla. verdict could be biggest medical liability award the state has seen

A Florida jury on Sept. 29 delivered a $116.7 million verdict against a group of emergency physicians and an unlicensed assistant. The jury said the doctors had been negligent in misdiagnosing a patient's stroke symptoms. The patient, Allan Navarro, became paralyzed.

The verdict held Michael P. Austin, DO, and physician assistant Mark Herranz each 25% responsible for Navarro's condition. Their employer, Carrollwood Emergency Physicians PA, was found 50% at fault for other doctors who evaluated Navarro. The award included $46.5 million in pain and suffering damages.

The Hillsborough County jury on Oct. 3 added $100 million in punitive damages to the verdict against Carrollwood Emergency Physicians for allegedly concealing facts about Navarro's emergency department visit from the plaintiffs.

The combined $217 award is believed to be the third largest medical liability verdict in the nation and the largest in Florida.

Dr. Austin's attorney, Jeffrey M. Goodis, said the doctor denies any wrongdoing. He did not say whether he plans to appeal the verdict.

Attorneys for Carrollwood Emergency Physicians did not return calls for comment. The group and its affiliated practice have since filed for bankruptcy, according to an attorney for Navarro, C. Steven Yerrid. Herranz has since died.

New Calif. law stops big payouts for egg donors, adds protections

A new California statute outlaws generous compensation to women who donate oocytes for privately funded embryonic stem cell research. Under the measure that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in late September, egg donors still are able to be reimbursed for direct expenses such as transportation to and from appointments.

Several women's groups supporting the new law argue that payments of $5,000 and more can induce poor women to take unnecessary medical risks. Two physician groups, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists oppose the law, saying that women deserve to be compensated for advancing research and helping couples have children.

The law defines egg donors as human research subjects, meaning that federal and state laws governing clinical trials will apply. Women also must be fully informed about the risks of fertility drugs used during the process, which include ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

California's Proposition 71, which promises $3 billion in state bond money for stem cell research, already prohibits big payments to egg donors.

Study: No link between work-hour limits and improved surgical care

Shorter work weeks have surgical residents feeling more rested, but the quality of patient care has not improved, says a new study in the October Journal of Surgical Research.

A survey of 165 general surgery, otolaryngology and obstetric-gynecology residents in six states found that respondents believed that patient care had not improved or had declined since the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education capped residents' hours to an average of 80 per week.

Residents surveyed said the new hours had disrupted continuity of care by increasing how often residents covered patients with whose cases they were not familiar. They also reported more miscommunication. Residents said these issues outweighed perceived gains from fewer fatigue-related errors, such as sleeping through a page or miscalculating a medication dose.