If we get sued, our settlements get reported to NPDB, and a whole host of consequences follow, that I’m sure everyone here is aware of. But does the same happen when it’s the hospital or medical center paying the settlement?
Let’s say I get sued, and so does my employer medical center. If 100% of the settlement comes from them, it seems like there are far fewer consequences, and it might be in everyone’s best interest to just have the medical centers pay everything. Is there a reason we all don’t just do this?
What about offering to testify for the plaintiff as their expert witness that the medial center was at fault in exchange for getting dropped from the suit. Has anyone tried this before?
If only it worked that way. If only. I'm sure someone smart will explain why it doesn't.
With that said, if the settlement is paid out on your behalf, it still gets reported to NPDB, regardless of whether you paid anything personally.
Yeah, I’ve never paid anything personally. It’s always been within my policy limits, but it still gets reported. Usually the medical center is sued too, so I was just wondering why we all can’t get together and say, “Look, you want $500,000. Instead of me giving you $250k, and the medical center giving you $250k, how about the medical center just gives you the full $500k so I don’t get screwed over?” The patient gets paid. I don’t think they care that much about us getting reported. What does it matter? We have the same insurance after all, so it’s coming out of the same pocket anyway
[deleted]
I don’t know man, if a cop’s getting sued they probably intentionally did something wrong. When we get sued, it’s usually just because someone had a bad outcome. Lay people are horrible are knowing when malpractice occurs. The vast majority of lawyers are also idiots in my experience, and they’ll take any case where someone dies and try to say it’s somehow your fault if they can find one thing you could have done different.
The law recognizes this too. In order to sue a physician you NEED an expert witness physician to say they violated the standard of care. You don’t need that to sue a cop. Lay people are qualified under the law to just see when they mess up and know it
I am a corporate director of risk management practicing since 1983. I have handled about 800 malpractice claims to date. Several years ago, the NPDB got wise to reporting malpractice payments under the name of the hospital or healthcare system to avoid naming the individual clinicians. Now, if the clinician is actually liable, they must be individually reported.
[deleted]
Is there any reason a hospital wouldn’t do this? If I have the same insurance as the hospital, but different lawyers, is there even a reason for the hospital’s lawyers to be arguing I’m 100% at fault? I’m trying to figure out what that would even accomplish for them
[deleted]
They’re saying I administered the wrong drug to a patient, but it was actually an RN’s fault
[deleted]
I’m just saying what they’re alleging. There’s nothing they don’t already know
In many employment contracts, the hospital can decide to assign the doctor the liability or split it. The doctor don’t have to agree to the settlement the hospital offers to get out of the lawsuit. And then the hospital gives your name to the NPDB as the person who was responsible for the settlement.