Senator Rucho’s Bill
March 1, 2011 - by
Having gotten his bill for the Medical Society to “cap” jury awards in malpractice lawsuits rolling, Senator Bob Rucho now has his sights set on getting his friends at the Hospital Association immunity when they commit malpractice in the emergency room.
Now a lot of folks have the idea you can sue a doctor for almost anything – that if you come out of the hospital grumpy or unhappy or less than perfectly healed you’ve got the makings of a medical malpractice lawsuit on your hands.
But it turns out that’s not so. To win a malpractice lawsuit a patient has to prove a very tough fact: That the doctor (or hospital) was negligent. Not that the doctor made a mistake. But that he made a mistake out of pure sloppy negligence. Because if the doctor wasn’t negligent – no matter what he did – it’s not malpractice. We don’t hold doctors accountable for mistakes. We only hold them accountable when they make mistakes due to negligence.
I have a relative with diabetes who, last month, ended up in the hospital with an infection; for three weeks his doctors pumped him full of antibiotics and it was touch and go but they made progress – then the antibiotics began to harm his kidneys. When then happened is the doctors came to the family and said: We can either go on fighting the gangrene and risk harming his kidneys or stop the antibiotics and spare his kidneys but the infection may get worse. We think the infection’s weakened and we should stop the antibiotics – but we may be wrong.
It was a Hobson’s choice and the doctors turned out to be right but even if they’d been dead-wrong it wouldn’t have been malpractice because it was a “reasonable decision” – it wasn’t negligence.
So a doctor has to do something pretty bad to be found guilty of malpractice by a jury.
But Senator Bob Rucho means to change that. His bill gives doctors and hospitals 100% immunity when they commit negligence in emergency rooms. They can’t be sued period. No matter what they do.
So if a doctor runs over you in the hospital parking lot you can sue his chops off – but if the same doctor cripples you in the emergency room due to sheer negligence you can’t touch him because thanks to Senator Rucho – and the Hospital Association – he’s got complete legal immunity.
What’s more, if you end up with a million dollars in medical bills it’s your tough luck.
In one swoop Bob Rucho’s made a trip to the emergency room a roll of the dice and he’s done something else pretty unusual too: He’s taken pay to play to a whole new level.
He’s actually changing the law to give people who support him (and give contributions to his campaigns) a special privilege no one else has: Immunity from lawsuits. Which, if you think about it, may not be the best idea in the history of American democracy. After all, Lord knows where that could end.
Senator Rucho’s Bill
March 1, 2011/
Having gotten his bill for the Medical Society to “cap” jury awards in malpractice lawsuits rolling, Senator Bob Rucho now has his sights set on getting his friends at the Hospital Association immunity when they commit malpractice in the emergency room.
Now a lot of folks have the idea you can sue a doctor for almost anything – that if you come out of the hospital grumpy or unhappy or less than perfectly healed you’ve got the makings of a medical malpractice lawsuit on your hands.
But it turns out that’s not so. To win a malpractice lawsuit a patient has to prove a very tough fact: That the doctor (or hospital) was negligent. Not that the doctor made a mistake. But that he made a mistake out of pure sloppy negligence. Because if the doctor wasn’t negligent – no matter what he did – it’s not malpractice. We don’t hold doctors accountable for mistakes. We only hold them accountable when they make mistakes due to negligence.
I have a relative with diabetes who, last month, ended up in the hospital with an infection; for three weeks his doctors pumped him full of antibiotics and it was touch and go but they made progress – then the antibiotics began to harm his kidneys. When then happened is the doctors came to the family and said: We can either go on fighting the gangrene and risk harming his kidneys or stop the antibiotics and spare his kidneys but the infection may get worse. We think the infection’s weakened and we should stop the antibiotics – but we may be wrong.
It was a Hobson’s choice and the doctors turned out to be right but even if they’d been dead-wrong it wouldn’t have been malpractice because it was a “reasonable decision” – it wasn’t negligence.
So a doctor has to do something pretty bad to be found guilty of malpractice by a jury.
But Senator Bob Rucho means to change that. His bill gives doctors and hospitals 100% immunity when they commit negligence in emergency rooms. They can’t be sued period. No matter what they do.
So if a doctor runs over you in the hospital parking lot you can sue his chops off – but if the same doctor cripples you in the emergency room due to sheer negligence you can’t touch him because thanks to Senator Rucho – and the Hospital Association – he’s got complete legal immunity.
What’s more, if you end up with a million dollars in medical bills it’s your tough luck.
In one swoop Bob Rucho’s made a trip to the emergency room a roll of the dice and he’s done something else pretty unusual too: He’s taken pay to play to a whole new level.
He’s actually changing the law to give people who support him (and give contributions to his campaigns) a special privilege no one else has: Immunity from lawsuits. Which, if you think about it, may not be the best idea in the history of American democracy. After all, Lord knows where that could end.