LAWRENCE COUNTY Doctors to close offices for a day over malpractice insurance costs

Doctors will make hospital rounds and arrangements for emergency cases.
By NANCY TULLIS and
PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County physicians and surgeons will go to Code Blue on Tuesday in a protest of medical malpractice costs.
Susan Raub, office manager for Dr. Mohammad Ali of New Castle, said all Lawrence County medical offices will be closed that day, as physicians and surgeons gather at Kennedy Square on West Washington Street.
The doctors will be available to answer questions from the public about what they believe is a medical malpractice crisis.
Meanwhile, inside the former post office at 1 W. Washington St. will be a health fair all day. The public can receive health information and free blood pressure and other screenings, Raub said.
Doctors have made arrangements to provide emergency care for patients that day, Raub said. Doctors will make hospital rounds, and one doctor from each medical group will carry a pager. Medical answering services will field calls from patients and direct them to go the hospital for any emergency treatment.
Raub said one doctor's malpractice insurance increased by $25,000 last year. She said the malpractice insurance makes remaining in Pennsylvania difficult and deters young physicians from practicing in the state.
She said trauma surgeons in California, where there is a cap on malpractice insurance costs, pay lower premiums than do internal medicine physicians in Pennsylvania. Raub said Pennsylvania general and orthopedic surgeons, cardiologists, obstetricians and gynecologists pay the highest rates.
Thousands to participate
Statewide, thousands of doctors are expected to participate in Code Blue, which began this week.
Doctors want a $250,000 malpractice cap placed on damages for pain and suffering, but a state task force studying the malpractice crisis has suggested further study is needed on that issue.
No organized rallies or demonstrations in Mercer County are planned by local physicians during the weeklong statewide Code Blue protest, but some local physicians are closing their offices for one or more days and some are traveling to organized events elsewhere in the state.
Some physicians who aren't closing their offices are speaking to their patients about the medical malpractice insurance problem, added Dr. Patrick Shaughnessy, a physical medicine specialist and president of the Mercer County Medical Society.
Dr. Shaughnessy said he and Dr. William Trachtman, a physical medicine specialist, with whom he shares an office in Hermitage, and Dr. Jose Santiago, a Hermitage psychiatrist, closed their offices today and are traveling to a continuing medical education program and Code Blue rally in State College.
Dr. Shaughnessy and Dr. Peter Daloni, a Sharon urologist, will go to Harrisburg on Tuesday to rally and lobby local legislators. All of the doctors are arranging coverage in case patients have emergencies, Dr. Shaughnessy said.