OHIO Doctors fight back in malpractice crisis

There are 19 states considered to be in a malpactice crisis.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Dr. Victoria Ruff's court fight started when she was one of 22 defendants named in a malpractice lawsuit by the family of a patient she saw briefly while trying to resuscitate him.
It continued after Ruff was dropped from the case. She went back to court to try to recover $25,000 in legal fees.
"The diagnosis and treatment had been made. My involvement was very limited," said Ruff, a critical care specialist. "I was absolutely shocked I was named in the suit."
Doctors are fighting back against malpractice lawyers who cast a wide net when filing lawsuits -- sometimes naming a number of doctors and whittling the group down before the case goes to trial.
Physicians say the practice they call "shotgunning" leads to frivolous claims, harms doctors with minimal involvement in a patient's care and contributes to the spiraling cost of malpractice insurance.
Lawyers' contention
Lawyers argue that it's sometimes impossible to rule out a doctor's involvement without taking depositions, a process that provides a detailed account of a patient's care and could take months.
Medical societies in several states are starting committees to help doctors seek more aggressive ways to deter what they consider frivolous lawsuits. Doctors have asked judges to fine lawyers, requested penalties from state bar associations and sued plaintiffs' lawyers.
"The malpractice business has gotten into a crisis mode with big premiums for all malpractice," said Dr. Ken Printen, president of the Illinois Medical Society. "Before, they (doctors) said, 'That's OK we'll just suck this up and it will go away.' Now it's costing them a lot of money to do that."
Doctors have held rallies and walked off their jobs for short periods to protest rising malpractice claims and accompanying insurance rates. Premiums have doubled for some doctors, and some insurance companies have stopped writing malpractice policies because they have lost money.
The American Medical Association has identified 19 states as being in a malpractice crisis.
Lawyers say they are being wrongly blamed.
"The evidence is abundantly clear that the reason for increasing medical malpractice premiums is the insurance industry's business and investment practices and not the patients injured by medical malpractice trying to hold wrongdoers accountable," said Carlton Carl, a spokesman for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
Support for legislation
The American Insurers Association, like the AMA, has said unnecessary lawsuits are to blame for rising premiums and has supported legislation to curb malpractice lawsuits.
The Ohio State Medical Association says unnecessary claims could be avoided if lawyers did more research before filing lawsuits. The association has compiled data on 80 cases like Ruff's and is awaiting the outcome of her court motion before taking action on others.
"What we are looking at are egregious instances where, with reasonable due diligence, a personal injury lawyer should have been able to identify whether or not an individual physician belongs in a case," said Almeta Cooper, the association's general counsel.
A malpractice lawsuit usually makes insurance more expensive for a doctor. When determining rates, most insurance companies consider how many times a doctor has been sued -- even if the physician was dropped from the case or not found liable.
Lawsuits also become part of a physician's record and could harm the chances for promotions or privileges, Cooper said.
Physician advocacy groups in other states said they are following Ohio's example. The Illinois Medical Society is studying the system of tracking lawsuits and could create a legal resource center, Printen said.
The Mississippi Medical Society began tracking frivolous lawsuits after a spike in litigation in the last year, said general counsel Linda McMullen. She said the group has filed complaints with the state bar association on behalf of five doctors.