CARSON CITY – The debate over reforming the so-called Keep Our Doctors in Nevada medical malpractice law came to a head this morning in the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, as lawmakers race to beat a Friday deadline to pass bills.
A series of patients who say they were victims of medical malpractice told their stories to the committee, which has already been laboring against the backdrop that is the horror story of Dr. Dipak Desai and the hepatitis C crisis that shocked Southern Nevada. Under current law, a person infected with hepatitis C at one of Desai’s clinics — allegedly as a result of negligent procedures — can recover future lost wages, but only $350,000 in pain and suffering.
AB 495, however, would change that. Although a final version has yet to be approved, doctors whom a jury finds have exhibited “gross negligence” would not be protected by the $350,000 pain-and-suffering cap. And that’s interesting, since it puts opponents — that is, doctors — in the position of having to defend fellow physicians who allegedly have engaged in “gross negligence,” including Desai.
And that’s precisely what they did. According to doctors, removing the $350,000 cap would result in rising medical malpractice rates, fewer doctors in the state (especially specialists) and a general decline in the quality of health care. The current system — in which doctors face the loss of their licenses as well as having to pay patients for future lost earnings, as well as the maximum $350,000 for pain and suffering — is sufficient, they argued.
But what about Desai, who allegedly re-used single-dose vials of medicine and cheap syringes to save money, thus exposing patients to deadly diseases? Surely that is gross negligence that shouldn’t be protected by the law?
“Physicians who operate in this manner obviously have issues of ethics,” said Dr. Rudy Manthei, chairman of Keep Our Doctors in Nevada. “I don’t believe economic penalties are a deterrent. [The solution is] not in creating penalties that would affect health care for all.”
Dr. James Swift, the medical director of Sunrise Medical Center and the owner of his own practice of physicians, agreed: He said his medical malpractice rates rose from $15,000 to $75,000 before the $350,000 cap was imposed, and have graduallly fallen since. He said recruiting doctors would be far more difficult without the cap, and that rates would surely rise.
“There would be devastating consequences to us economically,” Swift said.
Despite the warnings, however, lawmakers seemed to be inclined to take some kind of action on AB 495, if their questions to witnesses at the hearing were any indication. The hearing will resume at 4 p.m. today.
Activists, however, didn’t wait for the hearing. At a news conference outside the legislative building, several demanded reform of medical malpractice laws. “With the disasters that have happened in our community, especially in Las Vegas, this law needs to be changed immediately,” said Jan Gilbert of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
“Let’s put it in the hands of a jury and a judge when it comes to malpractice,” she said.
For Kevin Murray of Reno, however, the issue was far more personal. His first daughter, 19-month-old Braley, fell ill with a fever on a Friday. Despite two calls to the family doctor, and a trip to a pediatric urgent care center over the weekend, Braley’s mennengitis went undiagnosed, and she died the following Monday. Murray’s lawsuit against one doctor was settled, but because of jury instructions, a second doctor was found not guilty.
“Why do we have to put a monetary cap [on malpractice cases]?” Murray asked. “Why do we have to play God?”
It’s a question lawmakers will try to answer before Friday.
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