Well, every doctor that I know gripes about lawsuits. Potential ones, past ones, ones they read or hear about, or just of litigious patients in general. Here is one for the record books (kind of like the woman that successfully sued McDonalds for their coffee being too hot when it burned her crotch). So, the hospital where I did my residency was a city-affiliated hospital which meant that the doctors were pretty personally protected from lawsuits. However, the hospital’s strategy was to settle as many nuisance cases as possible - I guess to keep the main legal resources for dealing with the big ones. This doesn’t make things any more fair however, and I think a certain patient population knew this (like the idiots with no injuries who sue the city for “injuries” in a minor bus accident - stay tuned for a later post on this). All this drives up the costs of running the hospital which in turn drives up the already high city taxes. I would much rather subsidise the clinic than nuisance lawsuits!
In this particular case, a young man came into the department with an obvious severe limp in his left ankle. Also looking quite like he was in a hurry, he kept annoying the staff by giving short answers and fussing that the x-ray was taking too long to be done. He got the x-ray but upon his return to his room, he noticed the police came in bringing in another perp (perpetrator or suspect in a crime) for God knows what. This evidently made him very agitated and he told the resident that he had to leave immediately. Before the x-ray could even be looked at he signed out against medical advice (AMA) The resident thought it was pretty apparent that the ankle was broken. He refused even crutches or a splint so basically he limped out the way he came in. The film revealed a fracture that was displaced so calls were made to the phone number he gave us - of course a number that did not exist. A letter was sent to his alleged address but no reply was received. About a month or so later , we received a letter from risk management stating that this upstanding citizen we had attempted to treat was suing the hospital. An investigation into the case revealed that he had injured his ankle while fleeing from the police. He had successfully gotten away and limped into our department. When the police arrived with the other guy, he got nervous that he would be recognised and signed out ASAP. He didn’t get far. In a few days he was arrested for whatever crime he had initially committed and eventually was treated for his fracture. Apparently he was now saying that he had continuing severe pain, and that we did not treat his fracture in a timely manner and “let” him sign out AMA!!! The attending involved was disgusted with this and told risk management that this would be an easy case to win. They did not want to pursue this, and because of the type of malpractise insurance we had, the hospital had the right to settle a case even if the doctor wanted to fight. The SHPOS was awarded $10,000 for our “sub-par, negligent, and incompetent care” to shut him up. I am sure his lawyer reaped at least 2/3 of that. At least the attending was not personally named in the case so his record remains clean. Still, that 10K could have gone to buy a lot of meds for our woefully understocked clinic.
Canadian Pharmacy
How appalling. Why bother document the reason the patient leaves or that you have explained the risks to him even the hospital is going to dispense thousands of dollars anyway. You know what the real irritating thing is? The the common working Joe on the street who earns his money by hard, honest work, doesn’t even think of doing something that dishonest!
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
See it everyday and it just makes me sick!
Another great post. I’m sort of amazed how quickly we can acclimate to these people, while working in an ER.
kind of like the woman that successfully sued McDonalds for their coffee being too hot when it burned her crotch
And this is one of my really random pet peeves. The case actually wasn’t as stupid as people make it out to be. Random article. There are certainly better examples out there. I’m sure you know some from experience, even.
I am aware you said “kind of,” though. That’s why it’s a stupid pet peeve and I’m aware of that. ;p
OK, So I still say it is laughable. Why in God’s name did she put the cup in her lap!!!??!? Especially while she was trying to take the cover off? Why was she trying to take the cover off anyway? If she did not have a cup holder in the car, she should not attempt to drink it there! It was her choice to put something that is SUPPOSED to be hot in her lap! I could understand more if she had burned her lips while trying to drink it.
The hospital is just asking for lawsuits. The more people who think that they can get something out of the system, the more people who will try to get something out of the system. What they save in litigation costs, they will lose in paying these frivolous suits.
The attending didn’t get reported to the NPDB, did he?
I am not sure if he was, Whitecoat ( I was just a dumb PGY 2 and didn’t ask those sort of questions then). In general though, one of the benefits in working for this innercity hospital system is that almost no doctors are sued personally - lawyers just sue the city/hospital system. My wife was sued (she used to be a practising OB in the same system)personally in a disasterous case and was fortunately dropped. This was very atypical apparently. Luckily in this case, the hospital system fought the case and it was thrown out of court. In fact, that reminds me, that story would make a good post….stay tuned.
Heres my story, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am about to be 30yrs old, and I work(ed) in a warehouse. I had barely statred this job and not even 2 weeks later I was was driving a Tugger Machine (that pulls carts) I had got to my aisle to unload boxes and stepped off the machine to pull the brake up when the machine malfunctioned,and went in reverse crushing my tibia and shattering my fibula. I was pinned up against 7 stories of shelves while the machine continued to run over the top of me. I am on workers comp, and was taken to ER,(8-2-2007) treated by surgeon on call, who did not want to do a surgery at that time, instead had me in a full leg cast, and told me to follow up with him, so I did. Almost 3 weeks later (8-22-07)the dr. told me the bones were not healing the way he wanted and insisted on surgery, so I ended up getting 8 screws and a metal plate in my right leg. After my dismissals from the hopsitals he had me on Darvocet for pain, and it was not helping, so he switched me to Hydrocodone 7.5mg. The instructions were to take 1-2 pills by mouth every 4-6 hrs for pain, which I was in alot of. He prescribed me 20 pills at a time so it was a 3 or 4 day supply. I had continued to see him, and still to this day have alot of pain (though some days are worse than others) however after a while he stopped treating my pain and refused to give me anything, just told me to take ibuprofen, so I did~It did not help. I was taking sometimes 8 or 9 of the a day, but no relief. I tried to talk to him about this and how much I was hurting but it was as though he was hearing me, but not listening to me. The pain got so bad at times, I was taken to the ER for treatment, though I had a treating dr. for this injury. I’ve been going to appts now for 5 months and at least the last 4 everytime, I was in and out of the exam room in ten minutes tops, he would take an x-ray, and dismiss me. He explained to me there is NO way I am in any pain because MY LEG IS HEALED. I know how much pain I have, but he did not seem to care. I then got a letter a few days ago to go to a different Dr. for my impairment rating, not knowing what to expect. However I went to see that Dr. and he was in shock that I had been in NO kind of Physical Therapy (though I had even asked my treating dr. that several times, and he told me it was not needed) Imp. Dr had my medical records (which I had also gone to pick up before my imp. rating appt.) and he said that “HE WOULD HAVE TO DISAGREE THAT I AM HEALED, AND I AM NOT AT MMI. HE STATED IT WOULD BE AT LEAST ANOTHER 9 MONTHS TO A YEAR BEFORE I AM COMPLETELY HEALED.” He advised me that I should consider finding me another Dr. who is going to treat my pain, and get me into therapy and make sure that I am taken care of. After reading my medical records, I called my treating Dr. and my attorney and I requested another Dr. However, in my records Dr. M (treating Dr.) stated false accusations about me, for 1 saying that I had lied to him about having to go to the ER for treatment,(I had the discharge papers for proof) he also stated that I was abusing narcotics by taking too many of them, though I took them as directed on the bottle. I have been reading up on some things that my attorney had told me, and I never knew it existed, but my Dr. was blacklisting me, which is illegal. I was not only mad as hell but I was hurt and felt betrayed. I did everything he asked of me as a patient, and he never discussed any of these matters with me in person. Him and the staff would smile in my face and obviously talk behind my back. So my attorney found me another Dr. but I had to drive today for 3 hrs to get there because of my insurance (Network Dr.s) and that alone was a task in itself to get there, and once again, I was handed IBUPROFEN, and told to come back for therapy in 1 week~I AM IN SHOCK! How can this happen to patients? I understand that yes, there probably are people who misuse a narcotic, but I AM IN SEVERE PAIN, and its as though my Dr. has ruined me for a fair treatment. I was not taking them for the fun of it, but because I can barely even stand up to get out of bed sometimes, and if the weather is cold, I can not go outside because it hurts even more with the hardware in my leg. I have NEVER had any problems with any drug or alcohol problems in my life, because I choose not to do those things, I’ve seen what it does to people. I dont even like to take a tylenol when I have a headache, but I have no choice when my leg is swollen 3 times bigger than it should be, and in pain 10+ on a scale. I have worked in corrections for many years, and been in the military~so why am I being treated this way? It’s just not fair, and I don’t know what I need to do next. All I want is to be treated like any other patient, and get respect from a Dr. that I am comfortable with, but that Dr. has ruined my judge of character, and I am furious because it seems as though I am crying out for help,and only getting jerked around from not only my Dr. but my workers comp insurance as well, I would give anything to not have a broken leg but I can’t change it. Now I am stuck with this hardware in my leg, ugly scars, and not to mention by self being, depression, stress, and will never be able to do all of the things that I did before. I feel helpless, and just need some advice from any dr., or someone else who may have gone thru something similar… I am about to just give up but its not fair that this can happen to patients, especially those who have no history of abuse and who really are hurting. They are getting paid to treat me, but I barely even get 5 minutes with them~What do I do?!? Please help! Thank you in advance for reading my story. Hope you are starting off 2008 better than I am!
Mistreated Patient, for liability reasons, you are not likely to find anyone giving medical advice over the internet.
I would seriously advise you not to trust the advice if someone DOES give it. Without an exam, any advice is probably useless and may even be harmful.
Insist on another opinion. You may need your attorney’s help getting this approved. I would ask the doctor that did your impairment if he had any recommendations.
Best of luck
I would go and see a pain management specialist. ER’s are not the place to go for chronic pain.
kind of like the woman that successfully sued McDonalds for their coffee being too hot when it burned her crotch
“And this is one of my really random pet peeves. The case actually wasn’t as stupid as people make it out to be. Random article.”
And you are one of MY really random pet peeves. The case was actually MORE stupid than many people make it out to be. [http://www.overlawyered.com/2005/10/urban_legends_and_stella_liebe.html Random article.]
Easiest counter-point: There have been many other lawsuits legally indistinguishabl from this one, and this is the only one that won.
Most commonly useful relevant fact: the industry standard temperature for serving coffee is 175-190 F (Starbucks serves its coffee in this range).
And the “random” link you gave is to ATLA - hardly a non-biased source of info on the topic!
Crud, screwed up HTML tags - could the moderator fix that, please? Sorry.
The doctors should generally hire a personal lawyer, asking about:
1) potentially enjoining the hospital from settling, suing it for bad faith and a failure to fulfill any fiduciary duty to the doctor found by the lawyer;
2) keeping the patient in the hospital against his will could have constituted a crime of false imprisonment, battery, and a host of civil rights violations. No standard of care may break the law;
3) settlement implies wrongful care. That can only be determined by a licensed physician. In some states, the expert must match the defendant’s Board certificates. If no such doctor had the opinion of a deviation from professional standards, the decision may represent the unauthorized practice of medicine.
This case illustrates the point that doctors should make some effort to read their contracts. They should resist or negotiate clauses they either do not understand, or with which they are uncomfortable.
Useful site. Thank you!!
http://find-eyez-on-the-prize-soundtrack.gitersplace.net find eyez on the prize soundtrack