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Surge in Patients Leaving Against Medical Advice: Ethicist Involvement Needed
Hospitals are seeing a rise in patients leaving against medical advice (AMA), creating ethical challenges around autonomy, beneficence, and stigma. Ethicists can guide clinicians in assessing decision-making capacity, reducing bias, supporting continuity of care, and addressing systemic causes behind AMA discharges.
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Plaintiff’s Expert Not Qualified in Facelift Malpractice Suit in Texas
A Texas appeals court has reversed a trial judge’s decision to let a facelift malpractice case proceed, ruling that the plaintiff’s chosen expert, a board-certified anesthesiologist, was not qualified to testify about the standard of care for a cosmetic surgeon or a surgery center. The decision underscores a critical point in medical malpractice litigation: that an expert’s qualifications must align with the type of care at issue. Simply holding a medical license or certification is not enough.
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Texas Appeals Court Tosses Malpractice Case Over Defective Expert Report
A Texas appellate court has thrown out a surgical “foreign object” malpractice suit after concluding the plaintiff’s expert report failed to comply with the Texas Medical Liability Act. The Fourth Court of Appeals held that the plaintiff’s report did not implicate the specific physician alleged to be negligent and therefore amounted to “no report” as to that doctor. The court reversed the trial court’s order denying dismissal and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss the claims against the physician with prejudice and award fees and costs — as the statute requires.
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DOJ Scrutinizing Physician-Hospital Arrangements
The Department of Justice is intensifying its scrutiny of physician-hospital arrangements, heightening the need for strict compliance with the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute, which safeguard patient care from financial influence.
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Blockbuster Birth Injury Verdict Holds Lessons
A Utah hospital has been hit with a verdict of nearly $1 billion after a baby experienced birth injuries that will lead to lifelong disabilities. The case holds lessons for management of both obstetrics and malpractice litigation.
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Social Media Posts Create Risk, Can Require Discipline
Recent events have shown the risks posed to healthcare employers by social media posts that inflame controversial issues or denigrate patients. Hospitals and health systems are well within their rights to take disciplinary action against employees who post offensive material on social media
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The Seasonal Surge: Influenza in the ED
Influenza outbreaks occur each year, with their nature and extent largely determined by the virus’s glycoprotein structure and antigenic properties. These outbreaks typically occur during the winter months and can confer high morbidity to the general patient population. Increased mortality rates are seen in children younger than 5 years of age, older adults, and those with chronic comorbid medical conditions.
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Psychiatric Medications and Long QT Syndrome: A Safe Combination?
A retrospective study of patients with electrocardiogram long QT interval syndrome and psychiatric disease suggests that with proper pharmacologic treatment and counseling, the patients can be treated safely with psychiatric drugs known to increase the QT interval.
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Preventing Ventricular Arrhythmias with Potassium
A Danish randomized trial of augmenting serum potassium by diet or medications compared to usual care in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) has shown that modest increases in potassium resulted in a reduction in the composite endpoint of appropriate ICD therapy or hospitalizations for arrhythmias or heart failure, or death.
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Is Anticoagulation Necessary in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?
A large French national registry observational study of the use of anticoagulants in patients with pulmonary artery hypertension of diverse etiologies enrolled over 11 years, and a meta-analysis of this study and four other national registry studies, showed that there was no association between anticoagulant use and survival.