Clinicians and policymakers alike are raising the alarm about potential legal liability for following crisis standards of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to tracing the early history of the Missouri and New York suits, we explain how these lawsuits are being used as conduits for misinformation.
Can people infected with COVID-19 sue the people who transmitted the disease to them for negligence, even if those people did not do so knowingly?
When the COVID-19 crisis abates, people might reflect on their care and clinical malpractice cases may result.
By Valerie Gutmann Koch, Govind Persad, and Wendy Netter Epstein On March 17, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Dr. Jeremy Faust, titled Make This Simple Change to Free Up Hospital Beds Now. In it, he argues that cities and states should “temporarily relax the legal standard of medical malpractice,” in order to encourage…
By Daniel Aaron As the opioid litigation continues over the shadow of one of our nation’s most pressing public health crises, some criticism has been levied at private lawyers representing the cities, counties, states, and individuals harmed by the crisis. For example, see the following tweet: Let’s work out tax and healthcare financing policy county…
By Daniel Aaron People following the opioid lawsuits might have noticed some strange headlines as of late. Virtually every state’s attorney general (AG) is suing Purdue Pharmaceuticals, maker of the blockbuster drug OxyContin. Purdue filed for bankruptcy and is hoping to settle for “$10 billion.” However, the deal only includes $4.4 billion in cash, which…
By Alexa Richardson A new study indicates that 28.1% of women birthing in U.S. hospitals experienced mistreatment by providers during labor, with rates even higher for women of color. The multi-stakeholder study, convened in response to World Health Organization efforts to track maternal mistreatment, included more than 2,000 participants, and defined mistreatment as including one…
By Phebe Hong Protective orders, confidentiality agreements, and sealed court files significantly impair public access to vitally important records. Recent news coverage highlighting two high-profile drug product liability cases are ongoing examples of how our court system prevents crucial public health information from reaching the public domain.
A new dataset of health care conscience laws relating to abortion reveals broad scope of protection for providers, limited protection for patients.
