Lawyers and Doctors Battle Over Malpractice

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(KCPW News) Emergency doctors in Utah want some extra leeway in protecting themselves against malpractice suits. They say fewer people are willing to work in the ER - particularly specialists:

"Neurosurgeons in this town have to pay over $90,000 a year just for the privilege of getting out of bed on a Friday night to drain the blood from the brain of a victim of a drunk driver crash," says LDS Hospital emergency doctor Todd Allen. "And they say, I'm not gonna do it. Because the patients are sicker. The procedures are sometimes more invasive and more risky with more complications. Why take that risk if they don't have to?"

Allen says malpractice fears have thrown the emergency medicine system into crisis. The Utah Medical Association backs legislation to lower the standard of proof for emergency medical malpractice clear and convincing evidence." Trial lawyer Charles Thronson says that change will hurt the chances of his malpractice victims mounting successful lawsuits:

"The practical effect of this legislation is to tell people like Carla Glodowski that it is just too bad that your little boy went into the emergency room to have his cut right fingertip repaired and came out blind, paraplegic and in a coma."

Several of Thronson's clients offered their own tearful pleas that lawmakers reject the proposal. But the House Health and Human Services committee gave its approval, saying it deserves further debate.

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