Report: Patients Often Struggle for Access to Medical Records

In 2001, Sandee Pingatore was determined to find out why her son, Troy, 29, had died in a California hospital while being treated for a drug overdose just hours after she had been told he was stable. But Pingatore was unable to get the hospital to produce a key medical record showing his blood pressure in his final hours. When the record finally surfaced last year — too late under state law for Pingatore to file a civil lawsuit — it indicated Troy had been in mortal danger for several hours while awaiting care. In 2006, another California woman, Beth Stover, ran into difficulties when she tried to get medical records to help her understand why her full-term baby had died in her womb. When she got the records, she noticed something was missing: a strip-paper readout from a fetal monitoring device from Stover’s last routine checkup. She eventually got a readout showing normal activity for a mother and her baby, but in a lawsuit she says she doubts it came from her records. The hospitals involved — Fairchild Medical Center in Yreka, Calif., and Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Walnut Creek, Calif., respectively — deny any wrongdoing.

Please click on the link below to read the USA Today article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-04-29-medical-records_N.htm

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

Doctor Shortage Critical: Medicare Reimbursement Cuts May Force Physicians Out of Business

Columbus neurosurgeon Michael Gorum doesn’t see any other way out of the quagmire the nation finds itself in as patients and providers wrestle with the rising cost of health care. Congress “needs to quit piece-mealing a solution. Their No. 1 goal has to be universal health care,” Gorum said. “Rural hospitals across the country are going to close because they can’t pay their bills. One day people are going to wake up and they’re not going to have a health care system.” The many facets of the health care crisis make the challenge that much tougher. For example, Congress is under pressure to address a national doctor shortage. But it’s also being forced to cut Medicare reimbursements to keep that program solvent. So on July 1, physicians who treat Medicare patients will get a 10 percent pay cut, and they stand to face a second pay cut — of 5 percent — on Jan. 1, 2009. Those cuts, many observers said, are likely to make it difficult to keep doctors in business. In Georgia, 40 percent of practicing physicians are over 50, the age doctors typically consider cutting back their hours or retiring altogether. By 2020, the state will face a shortage of 2,500 doctors, according to a report for the state’s medical colleges by consulting firm Tripp Umbach. And, while the number of applicants to U.S. medical schools is increasing, it has not kept pace with the nation’s growing population. To address this, Congress is considering a bill called the Physician Shortage Elimination Act, which would spend millions to provide more scholarships for medical students and expand residency training in U.S. programs. This is especially true in rural and impoverished areas, where the physician shortage is most critical.

Please click on the link below to read the Ledger Enquirer article:

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/story/307338.html

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