PITTSBURGH Hospital targets Web site used in Pap smear lawsuit

Suits claim patients were misled into believing a doctor examined their tests.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A hospital has asked a judge to shut down a Web site created by law firms who have filed suit alleging that the hospital certified thousands of Pap smears with doctors' signatures when they were never reviewed by physicians.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Magee-Womens Hospital also sought an injunction Tuesday in federal court to bar three law firms from using the Web address www.mageepapsmearsuit.com or any other address including the hospital's name.
Magee-Womens Hospital contends that the law firms -- Lieff Cabraser Heimann & amp; Bernstein of New York, Roda & amp; Nast of Lancaster and Sprague & amp; Sprague of Philadelphia -- fraudulently use its name and the site contains "disparaging, unsupported and unsubstantiated allegations" to recruit women for a class-action lawsuit.
"Someone using the Internet and seeking to access Magee, Magee-Womens Hospital, or Magee International, may be unknowingly or unintentionally connected with or linked to the law firms' site, rather than the valid Magee Web site," the hospital's lawsuit said.
Lawsuits
Two women and Dr. Susan Silver, whose contract wasn't renewed at UPMC's Magee-Womens Hospital, filed lawsuits last week alleging that the hospital routinely put doctors' electronic signatures on test results to mislead patients into thinking that their tests were examined by doctors in order to make more money.
The plaintiffs' attorneys alleged that the hospital believed it could get more gynecologists to send samples for testing at Magee -- and in turn, generate more revenue -- if it said samples were checked by physicians rather than technicians.
Pap smear tests are routine screenings for gynecological cancers and tissue abnormalities. The hospital handles about 100,000 Pap smears a year, one of the larger caseloads in the region.
The Web site, which Magee said was set up on Friday, quotes a lawyer from one of the firms saying that "an unknown number of women may be at risk of serious diseases that have gone undetected because they received unreliable Pap smear tests."
Another says, "We are greatly concerned that the evidence will show negative reports were issued when the tests clearly showed signs of significant abnormalities."
The Web site also gives information about the law firms and a toll-free number for women to contact to join the lawsuit.
Allegations denied
Officials with the hospital and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have denied the allegations, saying the suits have no merit and could create unnecessary alarm among female patients. Hospital officials have also said the hospital's laboratories meet regulatory standards.
The law firms haven't been able to review the hospital's lawsuit, said Brian P. Tierney, a spokesman for the firms.
"It is our hope that the true purpose of Magee's lawsuit is not to try to use the legal system to keep tens of thousands of women from receiving the information they need to make critical health care decisions," Tierney said in a statement.
The hospital is also seeking damages to cover any lost income from the Web site.