It’s been nearly a year since the West Virginia Legislature passed reforms to the state’s medical malpractice laws. Have the changes made a difference? Just look at the number of doctors recruited in 2003 (more than 330 curriculum vitae received) compared to 2002 when Charleston Area Medical Center received only 180 curriculum vitae.
Last month CAMC President and CEO David Ramsey discussed the medical malpractice insurance crisis with Charleston attorney Richard Lindsay as part of the University of Charleston’s forum. Ramsey says we’re still in a crisis. “Many, many physicians who have licenses in West Virginia finished medical school here, got their MD, got their license and completed a residency here, but they’re not practicing here.”
CAMC lost two physicians in 2001 and 10 physicians in 2002 citing the medical malpractice environment as the reason. In 2002, CAMC lost the Level I trauma designation in August due to a shortage of doctors in the emergency department. Cases were transferred to Morgantown or out of state for treatment.
Ramsey used statistics to illustrate how infrequently malpractice occurs compared to the huge volume of patient contacts. A typical physician sees about 7,000 patients each year. CAMC has around 37,000 discharges a year, 90,000 emergency room visits and 400,000 outpatient visits each year. In Kanawha County alone, which covers three hospitals and hundreds of physicians, in 2000 there were only about 78 lawsuits filed for malpractice. “So if you take all the patient contacts and boil that down it’s a very minute number of potential malpractice incidents,” Ramsey said.
The number of malpractice lawsuits in Kanawha County has been on the rise since 1998 when there were only 29 filed that year.
The legislation that was passed in March 2003 caps non-economic damages for malpractice victims’ at $250,000, with some exceptions. Jury awards in cases involving trauma care are limited to $500,000.
CAMC had been experiencing a shortage of trauma physicians as well as other specialists. This legislation makes it easier to recruit those physicians in order to provide these critical services to the region.
Source: VitalSigns
