Philadelphia Top Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Pennsylvania medical negligence lawyer, I was alarmed to read about a Congressional bill that could rob families nationwide of their ability to hold negligent medical professionals responsible for life-changing mistakes. As the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader reported Nov. 28, Rep. Tom Marino, a Republican from Pennsylvania, has introduced legislation that would allow reporting of mistakes caused by electronic medical records without the report being used as an admission of wrongdoing. The bill applies to providers who accept Medicare or Medicaid, which the newspaper notes extends it to most providers. The bill also limits electronic discovery in such lawsuits and sets a statute of limitations that may be shorter than that of any particular state.

The goal of the bill, according to the newspaper, is to encourage medical providers to start using electronic records more often. Marino says many choose not to because they believe it will make them vulnerable to lawsuits. The Institute of Medicine recently released a report calling for a system to create a reporting system for records-related injuries and deaths, and Marino's bill would create such a system. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Institute said this would better protect patients. But critics of Marino's bill said it would actually leave patients less well protected by creating perverse incentives for providers. One Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyer told the paper that granting legal immunity for reporting mistakes would take away consequences for providers' actions, giving them no incentive to correct problems.

I agree. The bill would not necessarily stop medical malpractice lawsuits, but by making the records impossible to use in court, it would limit plaintiffs' chances of winning. If the system for reporting mistakes is confidential, the public and reporters would also have no way to determine which providers are doing a good job and which are falling short. As a Philadelphia birth injury lawyer, I do not recommend that patients rely on medical providers (or any other institutions) to police themselves. Other aspects of the bill are also disturbingly anti-patient, including the provision that would sharply reduce the deadline to file certain claims. It would limit claimants' ability to claim punitive damages, and limit discovery of electronic records in lawsuits. I believe patients should have the same right to hold negligent doctors responsible that other victims of negligence enjoy, and this bill appears designed ot make that more difficult.