Report: Number of Primary Care Doctors in the United States Down

Fewer American doctors are focusing on primary care, but the decline is being covered by physicians from other countries. The General Accountability Office said that as of 2006 there were 22,146 American doctors in residency programs in the United States specializing in primary care. That was down from 23,801 in 1995, the research arm of Congress told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “It is troubling to me that the number of Americans pursuing a career in primary care has declined,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Overall growth in the number of primary-care physicians “has been totally due to the number of international medical students training in America,” Sanders said. “We are increasingly dependent on international medical school graduates to meet our needs. Currently, one in four new physicians in the U.S. is an international medical graduate.” In its report on primary-care providers, GAO said the number of international medical graduates training in primary care had grown from 13,025 in 1995 to 15,565 in 2006. For specialists, the number of Americans in training went from 45,300 in 1995 to 47,575 in 2006 and over the same period international specialists grew from 11,957 to 12,611, GAO said.

To read the Associated Press article, please click on the link below:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPkJfzXhY8PFRbJbKPY4AS8rMOFwD8UP1C900

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Physician Advisors: Dedicated to Helping a Hospital’s Medical Staff Improve Documentation and Compliance

Few would doubt that a physician dedicated to helping a hospital’s medical staff improve documentation and compliance can help improve the facility’s billing efficiency and its resulting bottom line. This recognition, in addition to the need for hospitals to be compliant with Medicare’s and Medicaid’s Conditions of Participation has resulted in the growth of the role of physician adviser from a position that could once be filled by a semi-retired physician for a few hours a week to a necessary important operational medical necessity compliance and revenue integrity overseer available 7 days a week, according to Joseph Zebrowitz, MD, executive vice president at Executive Health Resources (EHR) in Newtown Square, PA. Zebrowitz said that the physician adviser is “an incredibly difficult role to develop internally. The physician adviser role has evolved to encompass many different skill sets.” Today, a physician adviser must be an expert in medicine as well as Medicare regulations. EHR provides outsourced physician adviser services to more than 300 hospitals and health care systems in the United States, ranging from 50 beds to more than 1,200 beds. Zebrowitz says that the company has seen significant national growth over the past 18 to 24 months and doesn’t expect that to slow down any time soon. All hospitals can benefit from physician adviser services, he said. Smaller hospitals have the challenge of finding and training the right personnel, while larger hospitals, especially academic medical centers, are often so layered and complex that it’s difficult for them to coordinate a legally compliant and accountable internal physician adviser program. A physician adviser process offers “the opportunity to unify departments that haven’t always worked together,” Zebrowitz noted. Those departments include finance, nursing, medical staff, case management, compliance and more. Oftentimes, when he runs an initial meeting at a client facility, the attendees realize they’ve never all met together before. “It’s time for these silos to get together because they each have a stake in regulatory compliance.”

Please click the link below to read the Advance Web article:

http://health-information.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?cc=107553

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Iowa Supreme Court Re-Interprets Statute of Limitations on Medical Malpractice Claims Involving Misdiagnoses

The Iowa Supreme Court sent two medical malpractice lawsuits back to district court after offering a new opinion on how the statute of limitations can be interpreted. The decision, which affects a breast cancer patient and a woman who had liver problems as a teenager, could allow more leeway for when patients can file negligence claims. Justices ruled that the statute’s two-year window should begin when patients know the extent and cause of their illness or injury, not necessarily when their symptoms are initially diagnosed. “We choose this approach because it is … fair to patients, doctors and the medical malpractice industry,” the court wrote in its ruling. The district courts, citing previous Supreme Court opinions, had dismissed both malpractice lawsuits after deciding the limitations period had expired. Justices acknowledged that the lower courts correctly applied the law but said a different interpretation was needed to better protect patients. The Supreme Court said the lawmakers can intervene if they believe the rulings violate the statute’s purpose.

Please click on the link below to read the Insurance Journal article:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2008/02/25/87604.htm 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Torn A.C.L. – Big-Time Injury Striking Little Players’ Knees

Last year, when Collin Link was 11 years old, he was tackled as he went in for a touchdown in pee-wee football. He didn’t get up,” his mother, Crystal Link, said. “He kept saying his knee hurt real bad.” But Mrs. Link was not overly concerned, thinking it was just a sprain. But the next morning when the family was getting ready to go to church near their home in The Woodlands, Tex., Collin said he could not walk. That Monday, a doctor told the Links what was wrong. Collin had an injury that doctors used to think almost never occurred in children. He had torn the anterior cruciate ligament, or A.C.L., in his left knee, the main ligament that stabilizes the joint. The standard and effective treatment for such an injury in adults is surgery. But the operation poses a greater risk for children and adolescents who have not finished growing because it involves drilling into a growth plate, an area of still-developing tissue at the end of the leg bone. Although there are no complete or official numbers, orthopedists at leading medical centers estimate that several thousand children and young adolescents are getting A.C.L. tears each year, with the number being diagnosed soaring recently. Some centers that used to see only a few such cases a year are now seeing several each week. And contrary to the old belief that boys are more prone to the injury than girls, as many as eight times more girls than boys are suffering the tears, doctors report. It is not an overuse injury from playing one sport too intensively, like shoulder injuries in young pitchers. Instead, doctors say, the injury occurs simply from twisting the knee, and diagnoses are on the rise partly because it can now be easily detected and partly because the very nature of youth sports has changed.

Please click on the link below to read the New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/health/18knee.html?_r=2&ref=health&oref=slogin&oref=slogin 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Study: “Code Blue” Deadliest During Hospitals’ Graveyard Shift

Many hospitals call it “code blue,” a signal given over the intercom when a patient’s heart has stopped. When code blue works well, a team speeds to the bedside and revives the patient. The graveyard shift is the worst time to call code blue, a new study finds. Patients who go into cardiac arrest while in the hospital are more likely to die if it happens after 11 p.m., when staffing may be lower or patients watched less closely. “Our findings should be a pretty big wakeup call to urge hospitals to critically evaluate how they are performing resuscitation,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Mary Ann Peberdy of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond. “It may well be possible that there is a less effective and less efficient response at night.” The study, appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, didn’t examine why days and overnights differed. But researchers found among the late night cases a higher portion of instances where patients were discovered with no heart electrical activity, that is, too late to deliver a lifesaving shock. Staff who are fatigued, less experienced or too few in number could be to blame, researchers speculated. Weekends had lower survival rates than weekdays, but the difference wasn’t as pronounced as between late night and daytime hours.

Please click here to read the CBS Online News article:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/19/health/main3850021.shtml

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Manufacturer of Diabetic Testing Products to Expand in Broward County

Home Diagnostics, a manufacturer of diabetic testing products, will add 135 jobs at its Fort Lauderdale plant by 2010, the company said Friday. To aid the expansion, state and local authorities could contribute $675,000 in taxpayer money. Broward County commissioners are scheduled to vote on their share of the package, $135,000, on Tuesday. The new jobs will be primarily in manufacturing and will pay an average of about $42,600 per year.

Please click on the link below to read the Miami Herald article:

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health/story/429506.html

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Arbitration: A Growing Trend in Healthcare

Within the space of two weeks late last year, Michael and Hedy Cohen, who happen to be experts on medical errors, each encountered what they saw as a disturbing development in the modern doctor-patient relationship. They were asked by two groups of suburban doctors to sign away their right to a jury trial in the interest of reducing malpractice costs. Legal experts say such attempts to channel potentially unhappy patients away from the court system and into arbitration are becoming increasingly common in health care. Agreements to settle future disputes with binding arbitration, in which an appointed individual or small panel decides the case instead of a judge or jury, are now pervasive in contracts involving many other things we buy, including credit cards, cell phones and cars. Proponents say arbitration is faster, cheaper and fairer than trials, but critics say the secretive system can be weighted against consumers and makes it harder to track complaints or build legal precedents.

Please click on the link below to read the Philadelphia Inquirer article:

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/15489097.html 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Addresses Physician Fatigue Issues

All obstetrician-gynecologists should evaluate the effects that fatigue may have on their ability to care for patients and adjust their workloads, work hours, and time commitments when feasible to avoid fatigue when caring for patients, according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). In its ongoing commitment to patient safety, ACOG released the new opinion today in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Although there are few published studies on the effects of fatigue on physicians, there is increasing awareness that fatigue, even partial sleep deprivation, impairs performance. More research on the effects of fatigue on practicing ob-gyns is needed before specific, evidence-based national guidelines can be developed to improve patient safety and care. In the interim, ACOG believes it is prudent for physicians to consider adapting, when feasible, the sleep guidelines from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

• Structure work to take advantage of circadian influences
• Recognize that the drive to sleep is very strong between 2 am and 9 am, and especially between 3 am and 5 am. Avoid unnecessary work during these times
• Apply good sleep habits which includes a quiet, dark room with adequate ventilation and a comfortable temperature
• After a night shift, go immediately to sleep to maximize sleep length
• Arrange for backup during the time that sleep impairment is likely
• Recognize behavioral changes, such as irritability, that may indicate dangerous levels of fatigue
• Use naps strategically

 Please click on the link below to read the ACOG press release:

http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr02-01-08-3.cfm

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

South Florida Surgeon Exaggerates Credentials in Medical Malpractice Case; Agrees to Surrender Medical License

After being ordered by the judge, Alex Zakharia, a 70-year-old South Miami heart surgeon, changed his mind during a federal court hearing and promised to surrender his medical license as he originally agreed to do. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman then sentenced the doctor to 30 days in a South Florida halfway house as part a one-year probation, plus a fine of $100,000 and several other fees. In 2006, Zakharia was charged with fraud and perjury because of allegations he exaggerated his credentials while testifying in a Michigan malpractice case. Last September, he agreed to retire by Dec. 31, surrender his license and plead guilty to a misdemeanor contempt of court charge in exchange for the felony charges being dropped. He later changed his mind. As late as last Friday he was still seeing patients. Last week, his lawyers filed papers in court he felt ”very regretful” about the plea deal and asked to be allowed to continue assisting other people through his profession.” Prosecutor Lynn Helland responded with a filing that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had agreed to the plea deal “to protect future patients from defendant’s incompetence as a surgeon.” In the document, Helland noted that Cedars Medical Center had ‘’stripped” Zakharia of his staff privileges as it investigated cases of his involving”numerous patient deaths.” He reported that the doctor’s own court filings indicated he had become ”forgetful” and had been prescribed a drug for Alzheimer’s patients.

Excerpt taken from a Miami Herald article. 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Palm Beach: Jupiter Medical Center Obtains “Stroke Center” Designation

With the threat of stroke growing along with Palm Beach County’s aging Boomer population, Jupiter Medical Center has been won designation as a primary stroke center. More importantly, Jupiter Medical officials said, the accreditation means stroke patients in northern Palm Beach County no longer have to travel all the way to Atlantis and south for emergency stroke care, which could be life-saving. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, killing 150,000 every year and leaving many more permanently disabled. Because the front end of the Baby Boom generation has been turning 60, that number is expected to grow. Although Palm Beach County has three stroke centers – at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, Delray Medical Center and Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach – Jupiter Medical’s new status is expected to address population growth at the north end of the county. Florida law requires ambulances to take patients suspected of having a stroke to hospitals certified in stroke care, not necessarily the closest hospital. The law was enacted in 2004 because rapid diagnosis and treatment can make the difference between life and death, and between a quick recovery and permanent brain damage.

Excerpt taken from a Palm Beach Post article.

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

4th DCA – Voluntary Waiver of Access to Courts Under Nursing Home Residents Act is Valid

The Fourth District Court of Appeal of Florida recently held that an agreement providing for arbitration of claims brought under Florida’s Nursing Home Residents Act was valid and not unconscionable simply because it waived access to the courts to resolve claims under the Act.  By way of background, during the admissions process to the nursing home the plaintiff executed an agreement to arbitrate all claims between the parties.  While at the facility, the plaintiff was injured and sued the nursing home in circuit court for negligence.  The trial court granted the defendant facility’s motion to compel arbitration under the terms of the arbitration agreement.  The 4th DCA upheld the trial court’s decision and pointed out that had the Florida legislature wanted to stop parties from arbitrating claims under the Act, it would have created an express prohibition against it in the nursing home statute. 

Please click on the following link to read the opinion: Slusser v. Life Care Centers of America 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Shopping for Healthcare on the Internet: Website Creates “Care Marketplace” for Medical Services

You can buy almost anything online these days, but try shopping the Internet for an MRI, strep throat test or even an annual physical exam and you’ll run into roadblocks. A new Twin Cities company called Carol is trying to change that with a Web site that gives consumers a ‘care marketplace’ to search for medical services, compare quality and price and make appointments. Carol joins an effort to transform the U.S. health care system by putting consumers in charge and letting the market do its work. ‘We want to let consumers define value,’ said Tony Miller, Carol’s founder and chief executive officer. ‘We don’t have care competition in the marketplace today.’ The free site, which went live in January, generates revenue from health care providers who become ‘tenants’ on the site. When a consumer sets up an appointment with a clinic or doctor on Carol.com, the provider pays the site a fee. While limited to about 30 providers in the Twin Cities area at its launch, the company is adding others and plans to serve a second U.S. market sometime this year, Miller said. Health care experts said Carol will face challenges in getting enough doctors and health plans to participate. But they said it goes farther than previous efforts to use the Web to enhance medical choice, and they praised its ease of use. Instead of going through a list of doctors or clinics, users tell the site what they’re looking for by clicking on parts of the body.

Please click on the link below to read the Forbes.com article:

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/02/10/afx4636965.html

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Doctor Wins $25 Million from Hospital for Wrongfully Revoking his Privileges

A Charleston surgeon was awarded $25 million by a jury Thursday after it ruled Charleston Area Medical Center damaged the doctor’s reputation by wrongfully revoking his privileges.  After a two-week trial, the Kanawha County jury deliberated three hours before returning the verdict in favor of R.E. Hamrick that included $5 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages. The jurors ruled CAMC’s actions were “fraudulent, malicious and oppressive conduct.” Hamrick wanted to self-insure himself for medical malpractice coverage with $1 million of his own money instead of going through an insurance company.  He sued CAMC in September 2004 after hospital officials took away his privileges to practice at the hospital, the second largest in the state. The surgeon’s right to practice was reinstated by a Supreme Court order four days later. “CAMC is extremely disappointed in the verdict and intends to appeal,” CAMC spokesman Dale Witte told WSAZ. A private practice surgeon, Hamrick had the $1 million needed to put into an actuarially sound fund in order to qualify for the caps on non-economic damages passed in 2003’s Medical Professional Liability Act. CAMC in 2006 adopted a policy that allowed physicians to insure themselves.

Please click on the following link to read the West Virginia Record article:

http://www.wvrecord.com/news/207689-doctor-wins-25-million-verdict-against-camc

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Colorado Senate to Vote on Raising Caps on Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases

A proposal to raise caps in medical malpractice lawsuits is scheduled to be heard by the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. Senate Bill 164, sponsored by Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver and Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, would raise the caps for non-economic damages (such as pain and suffering) in medical malpractice cases to match those in other types of damage cases. The current cap in medical malpractice cases for non-economic losses is $300,000; in general liability cases it’s $366,000, but that figure is scheduled to be inflation-adjusted this year. The bill also proposes that whatever the new cap in medical malpractice cases turns out to be, that it be subject to potential doubling, as in general liability cases now, in extreme circumstances if a judge determines it is justified. Damages for physical impairment or disfigurement, previously considered as non-economic damages will be considered as economic damages under the bill — with a cap of $1 million. Under current law, judges can override the caps for economic losses if they determine the patients losses exceed $1 million. The bill does not change that provision.

Please click on the link below to read the Denver Business Journal article:

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/02/11/daily71.html 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Radiation After Breast Cancer Surgery – The Sex of Your Surgeon May Influence It

Whether a woman receives radiation treatment after breast cancer surgery may be influenced by the gender of her surgeon, according to a new report from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study, from researchers at Columbia University, set out to determine why breast cancer treatment still varies among similar patients. In particular, they looked at radiation treatment given to women after lumpectomy. The treatment is considered a standard of quality cancer care and has been shown to reduce breast cancer recurrence and mortality. However, many women still don’t receive it. Earlier studies have suggested that demographic characteristics influence whether a woman receives postsurgical radiation. A patient’s race, age and how far she lives from a radiation therapy facility all are factors that affect her chance of receiving the treatment. But the latest report looked at the doctors behind the decisions. The researchers analyzed data on nearly 30,000 women aged 65 and older who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1991 and 2002 and who received lumpectomy. They also analyzed data on the 4,453 surgeons who operated on the women. About one in four women were not treated with radiation after surgery. Older women, black women, unmarried women and those living outside urban areas were less likely to receive radiation. But after controlling for those factors as well as characteristics of each woman’s cancer, the Columbia researchers spotted other trends. Women who received radiation were more likely to have a female surgeon. Women who were treated by more experienced surgeons were also more likely to receive radiation treatment, as were women treated by doctors trained in the United States.

Please click on the link below to read the entire New York Times article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/the-sex-of-your-surgeon-may-matter/

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Doctors Making Online House Calls – Clicking with Patients and Insurance Companies

Consulting your family physician is finally moving into the 21st century and out of the doctor’s office. Since the dawn of e-mail, patients have been pleading for more doctors to offer medical advice online. No traffic jams, no long waits, no germ-infested offices with outdated magazines and bad elevator music. There was always one major roadblock: Most health insurers wouldn’t pay for it. Until now. In recent weeks, Aetna Inc., the nation’s largest insurer, and Cigna Corp. have agreed to reimburse doctors for online visits. Other large insurers are expected to follow, experts say. These new online services, which typically cost the same as a regular office visit, are aimed primarily at those who already have a doctor. The virtual visits are considered best for follow-up consultations and treatment for minor ailments such as colds and sore throats. But some specialists, including cardiologists and gynecologists, also see these e-mail tete-a-tetes as ideal for periodic checkups that don’t require in-person visits. “People can wait a long time to get in to see their primary-care doctor and longer for a specialist. . . . To have immediate access is huge,” said Dr. Melissa Welch, Aetna’s Northern California medical director. As more doctors move online, others are looking further ahead and adding webcams to their online arsenal, even if the video quality remains spotty. Dr. Christy Calderon, a family physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Whittier office, conducts as many as half her appointments over the phone or online with a 3-inch camera affixed to her desktop. “It adds a more personal touch,” she said.  Although actual doctor visits aren’t likely to disappear, the recent moves are evidence that long-delayed efforts to bring American medicine into the digital age may be gaining momentum, experts say.

Excerpt taken from a Los Angeles Times article. 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Federal Agency Wants Improvement from 3 Area Hospitals, 30 Nursing Homes

Two hospitals in Palm Beach County and one in St. Lucie County are among 37 Florida hospitals and more than 250 nursing homes that the federal government says need to improve their surgical outcomes and the way they restrain patients and deal with bedsores. Columbia Hospital in West Palm Beach, Palms West Hospital in Loxahatchee and St. Lucie Medical Center in Port St. Lucie were among the hospitals listed as “facilities targeted for improvement” by the federal government’s Quality Improvement Organization, an agency within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The three local hospitals are owned by HCA Inc. The federal agency also listed 22 nursing homes in Palm Beach County, three in Martin County and five in St. Lucie County that needed to improve outcomes related to bedsores – defined as pressure ulcers – or use of physical restraints on residents.

The complete list can be found at: www.cms.hhs.gov/QualityImprovementOrgs/04_9thsow.asp.

Excerpt taken from a Palm Beach Post article. 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

New Jersey Physicians Oppose Aetna Plan to Drop Coverage for a Type of Anesthesia Used During Colonoscopies

A group of doctors from New Jersey s opposing a plan by Aetna Inc. to drop coverage of a type of anesthesia used during colonoscopies. Gastroenterologists and other doctors say patients anxious about colorectal screening may balk unless they are assured that their insurance coverage includes the cost of anesthesiologists who administer propofol, an anesthesia the doctors say is effective and comfortable. “The idea should be to encourage these procedures because of their lifesaving ramifications,” said John Fanburg, counsel for the New Jersey State Society of Anesthesiologists and the New Jersey Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Society. Aetna says moderate sedation, which it will continue to cover, works just as well and does not require an anesthesiologist, which can drive up the cost of the procedure by between $200 and $1,000. Gastroenterologists generally decide whether to use propofol or moderate sedation. As of April 1, the Hartford-based insurer plans to continue to routinely cover moderate sedation, but limit coverage of so-called monitored anesthesia care by an anesthesiologist to patients who are at higher risk due to illness or other complications. “Propofol works faster, but whether it results in improved patient satisfaction is difficult to prove,” said Robert McDonough, head of Aetna’s clinical policy unit. New Jersey specialists are organizing other doctors to oppose the change, and have scheduled a meeting Feb. 15 with Aetna officials. Fanburg did not rule out a lawsuit.

Excerpt taken from a Yahoo News article. 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Hawaii – Fear of Lawsuits Driving Doctors from Islands

A Wailuku physician specializing in obstetrics, gynecology and infertility, Berry told an audience of some 50 people that he is the last doctor still in private practice willing to deliver babies on Maui.  “You’re looking at a dinosaur,” Berry said during a Hawaii Medical Association Patient Access to Care Forum held Tuesday night at the Kihei Community Center. “And dinosaurs need nurturing.” Barry’s story was among several aired in an appeal for reform of Hawaii laws on torts – legal claims alleging errors or wrongful actions by medical personnel. “The bottom line is the five-letter word,” Berry said. “Money.” More and more physicians throughout the state are closing parts of their practice or leaving because of the high price of doing medicine in Hawaii. The physician shortage is making it more difficult for residents to find the doctors they need to take care of them. The Hawaii Medical Association, a professional organization for physicians and medical students, argues that the physician shortage has reached a crisis level on the Neighbor Islands, and that signs of the crisis are beginning to show up on Oahu. The fear of malpractice lawsuits has caused physicians to stop performing high-risk procedures and to quit volunteering for on-call emergency and trauma care duty, according to the HMA. HMA President Cynthia Goto, an obstetrician from Oahu, said the choices of places to deliver a baby are also limited on her island. But there are shortages in other medical specialties. These include orthopedics, neurosurgeons and anesthesiologists. In organizing the forum, the association promoted its efforts to win passage of House Bill 1992, which limits noneconomic damages in malpractice claims to no more than $250,000 and establishes a limit of $3 million for noneconomic damages for injury that the law defines as “catastrophic.” The legislation is aimed at reducing premiums for malpractice insurance carried by physicians.

Excerpt taken from a Maui News article. 

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Report: 2 South Florida Nursing Homes on Medicare’s National “Worst List”

For the first time, Medicare released the full list of the worst nursing homes in America, and South Florida has two homes among the rankings. Key West Convalescent Center, which has spent 37 months on the list, was among the facilities that have not improved. Palms Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Lauderdale Lakes, 16 months on the list, was among “facilities that have shown improvement.” The list includes about 150 facilities in the Special Focus Facility program, targeting nursing homes that have serious quality issues. The homes were selected because they had more than twice the average number of deficiencies of other nursing homes, or they had more serious problems (causing direct harm to patients, for example) or they had a pattern of serious problems persisting more than three years. 

Please click on the link below to read the Miami Herald article:

http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/416978.html

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.