An Illinois law that caps medical malpractice noneconomic damages awards at $1 million for hospitals and $500,000 for physicians was struck down today by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled that the five-year-old law violates the separation of powers provision in the state constitution.
The ruling stems from Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, a 2006 lawsuit filed by the family of a girl who suffered severe brain damage during her caesarian birth at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, IL.
The suit was the test care for several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the 2005 law, and partially affirms a 2007 ruling in Cook County Circuit Court. Today's ruling marks the third time since 1976 that the Illinois high court has stuck down malpractice damages caps.
"The crux of our analysis is whether the statute unduly infringes upon the inherent power of the judiciary. Here, the legislature's attempt to limit … damages in medical malpractice actions runs afoul of the separation of powers clause," stated Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald, writing for the majority. The case was sent back to the circuit court for further proceedings.
The state's leading physician and hospital associations immediately criticized the ruling as a serious blow to containing healthcare costs.
Illinois Hospital Association President Maryjane A. Wurth said the state's high court had "rejected the clear will of the people of Illinois who called upon their legislators to enact this fair and sensible landmark legislation."
"The hospital community is deeply concerned that this decision will renew the malpractice lawsuit crisis and make it more difficult for Illinoisans to access or afford healthcare as liability costs for physicians and hospitals are driven to unsustainable levels," Wurth said in a media release. "Hospitals across the state will again face even greater challenges recruiting and retaining physicians, especially specialists, such as neurosurgeons and obstetricians, who were leaving Illinois during the height of the crisis."
"It's profoundly disappointing that the wishes of millions of Illinois citizens have been ignored," said Illinois State Medical Society President James L. Milam, MD, in a media release. "And it's highly ironic the decision comes at the very time national lawmakers are searching for ways to expand patient access to care and contain unnecessary costs. Medical liability reform is a proven solution on both these fronts."
The 2005 law did not cap economic damages or other compensation, such as lost wages, potential future earnings, and medical expenses, for victims of medical negligence.
Peter J. Flowers, president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, said the 2005 law was a decoy to draw public attention away from he said are the real drivers of healthcare costs, namely the anti-competitive practices of the health insurance industry.
"Our healthcare system is reeling and rather than trying to fix it, insurance companies across the country have tried to divert attention from the real reforms that would improve access and care," Flowers said in a media release. "The Illinois Supreme Court has decided that the healthcare crisis cannot be solved by further hurting the patients who are victims of medical errors."
However, Michael T. Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, said in a media release that the ruling reaffirms the right to a trial by peers to decide appropriate compensation. "Hopefully, today's decision will finally put an end to the efforts of greedy insurance corporations to deny victims their due process," he said.
St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, NJ, says its reorganization plan was confirmed this week by a federal bankruptcy judge.
"St. Mary's emerges from Chapter 11 stronger and better than before," said Michael J. Sniffen, St. Mary's president/CEO, in a media release. "After less than one year, we emerge revitalized, improved, and re-committed to serving the community and the physicians that have so loyally supported us through this difficult process."
"We have already laid the groundwork for the hospital's renewal by opening a new ER fast track, acquiring new technology for our cardiology and oncology programs, and expanding other key services. This will be a banner year for St. Mary's Hospital and the community it so proudly serves," Sniffen said.
St. Mary's, a 292-bed nonprofit acute care hospital that is sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, is the first hospital to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey. Since 2007, six New Jersey hospitals have filed for bankruptcy, five of which have either closed or sold their assets in bankruptcy.
"Hospitals across the state have struggled with a long list of financial pressures and policy burdens," said New Jersey Hospital Association President/CEO Betsy Ryan. "How encouraging it is to see one of our hospitals emerge from these many challenges and continue to serve their community with the healthcare services we all depend on. That's especially true for this community, where as many as three hospitals once stood in the not-so-recent past."
St. Mary's declared bankruptcy in March 2009, claiming debts of $100 million. Since then, more than 500 hospital employees, including nurses and technicians, have agreed to work for a 5% pay cut—which the hospital later reduced to 4%—through the reorganizing process. As part of the agreement, St. Mary's will restore the cuts incrementally, along with some pay raises, in the coming months.
Virginia Treacy, RN, executive director of Jersey Nurses Economic Security Organization District 1, a healthcare union that represents 5,000 hospital and clinic workers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, called the announcement "a wonderful development for the hospital and its union employees, as well as for the community at large."
"In particular, Mr. Sniffen's willingness to offer us a true partnership has helped strengthen our commitment to work together toward a positive future for St. Mary's Hospital," Treacy said in the media release.
In December, St. Mary's was one of nine financially troubled hospitals in New Jersey that shared $40 million in state grants to maintain critical care services.
The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati has agreed to settle a federal whistleblower suit alleging that the hospital ran a kickback scheme with physicians to funnel patients to its cardiac care center.
Officials with The Christ Hospital admitted no guilt in the settlement, which could cost in the range of $100 million.
"We cannot comment on any terms of the settlement because the parties are currently finalizing the written agreement; however, this settlement allows the hospital to avoid the risk of the multi-billion dollar award sought by the government," says Heather Adkins, chief strategy officer at The Christ Hospital, in a written statement.
"While we continue to disagree with the government's allegations that the assignment of physicians to our cardiac testing station resulted in the inducement of local cardiologists to refer patients to the hospital, we decided to contribute to the joint settlement agreement with the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati instead of risking a potential catastrophic judgment that could jeopardize our ability to provide service to this community," Adkins says.
Officials from the Healthcare Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, the hospital's former parent company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Christ Hospital withdrew from the alliance in 2008.
Glenn Whitaker, the attorney for plaintiff Harry Fry, MD, a retired cardiologist who filed the whistleblower suit in 2003, says the settlement could be in the range of $100 million, and Fry could collect up to 25% of the settlement.
"This is a real big one. I don't want to give you precise numbers, but that is pretty accurate," Whitaker says of the estimated $100 million figure. "The number that is the subject of this settlement speaks for itself."
The U.S. Justice Department investigated the allegations for five years before intervening in 2008. Calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cincinnati were not immediately returned.
Whitaker says the government alleges that The Christ Hospital set up a scheme with a physician group known as Ohio Heart & Vascular Center that would give it preferred access at specialized non-invasive testing areas for EKGs, echocardiograms, and other tests based on the volume of their referrals to the hospital.
OHVC was sold to The Christ Hospital in 2008. An attorney for the OHVC group told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the physicians would not be required to share the cost of the settlement.
Adkins maintains that the hospital was providing "necessary and often life-saving medical care by ensuring sufficient cardiologists coverage to read heart tests provided in the hospital."
"There was no challenge in this case to the medical necessity or quality of patient care. Nor did the government suffer any loss as it did not expend any money for the services beyond standard Medicare payments," Adkins says.
By paying a portion of the settlement, Adkins says, "The Christ Hospital can move forward without years of ongoing litigation and the risk of a crippling judgment. We will proceed with our plans to improve and grow services provided for this community with the region's most respected hospital, staff, and physicians."
IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Initiate Systems, a Chicago-based provider of information-sharing software for healthcare organizations and government. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of March. Financial terms were not disclosed.
It's the 30th acquisition IBM has made in the information and analytics arena, as Big Blue positions itself for the release of about $20 billion in federal stimulus money for the comprehensive, nationwide adoption of electronic medical records.
"With the addition of Initiate's software and its industry expertise, IBM will offer clients a comprehensive solution for delivering the information they need to improve the well-being of patients at a lower cost," said Arvind Krishna, general manager, Information Management, IBM, in a joint media release. "Similarly, our government clients will now have even more capabilities for gathering and making use of information to serve citizens in a timely and efficient manner."
Initiate has clients at more than 2,400 healthcare sites, more than 40 health information exchanges, and multiple government health systems around the world. Its software allows clinicians to recognize patients at any facility within a health network with access to complete medical histories. Initiate’s technologies support healthcare regulations and standards including HL7 and HIPAA, according to the company.
"Our clients will be the ones who benefit most from this acquisition," said Bill Conroy, president/CEO, Initiate Systems, in the media release. "They will continue to get the software and expertise they depend on, plus the incalculable advantage they will gain through IBM's global reach and its capabilities in enterprise software, hardware, and services."
Initiate's healthcare clients include: Alberta (Canada) Ministry of Health and Wellness, BMI Healthcare (UK), Calgary (Canada) Health Region, CVS/Caremark, Humana, Ochsner (New Orleans) Health System, North Dakota’s Department of Health and Human Services, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Sutter Health, which serves more than 100 communities in Northern California, uses Initiate technology to link its entire health network. The North Dakota Department of Human Services uses Initiate to access a single view of all its clients so it can share information across its other programs to increase enrollment, speed eligibility screenings, and measure program effectiveness, according to the media release.
IBM says it will continue to support Initiate's technologies while helping clients access the broader IBM portfolio that includes clinical analytics, information discovery and transformation, and data warehousing and business intelligence.
IBM said its acquisition of Initiate extends its business analytics strategy through its new Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization, which includes 4,000 consultants, analytics solution centers, and investments of more than $10 billion in organic growth and acquisitions.
A senior executive from Aria Health, owner of the Philadelphia hospital where Joaquin Rivera died in November as he waited for emergency treatment, said that staff did not follow company policy requiring periodic checks on patients in the waiting room. Chief operating officer Linde Finsrud Wilson, testifying at a City Council hearing on Rivera's death, said the hospital had since trained staff to keep better watch on waiting patients. She said it also had added a second full-time security guard in the 25-seat waiting room, where Rivera's watch was stolen after he died, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The benefits and cost-sharing requirements of the Medicare Advantage plans that serve 10 million Americans vary widely from plan-to-plan with little explanation for the variance, a new Kaiser Family Foundation study finds.
Medicare Advantage enrollees could pay between zero and $3,325 for a five-day inpatient hospital stay, depending upon where they live and the plan they select.
Average cost-sharing for some Medicare-covered services has increased rapidly between 2008 and 2010 among Medicare Advantage plans—up 18% for an average stay in a skilled nursing facility and up 36% for an average inpatient hospital stay.
In 2010, about four in five Medicare Advantage plans set an annual limit on enrollees' out-of-pocket spending, providing protection from catastrophic costs that traditional Medicare does not provide. However, 31% of all plans have limits above the $3,400 level recommended by the Medicare program and 21% have no limit.
Nearly half of 2010 plans provide some coverage in the "doughnut hole" for Medicare's drug benefit—28% cover generic drugs only, and 21% cover generics and some brand-name drugs.
Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plan, says he doesn't "know enough about the report to dispute it."
"The key point is that Medicare Advantage plans across the country provide a variety of options for seniors to choose from," he says. "The data show that the overwhelming majority of seniors are satisfied with the coverage they are getting from their Medicare Advantage plans. They are benefitting from benefits and services that aren't available in the traditional Medicare program."
Marc Steinberg, deputy director of health policy at Families USA, says the study "really shows how Medicare Advantage is a very uneven program and one that where there is quite a bit of waste and risk for consumers."
"I'm sure there is some reason for their pricing, but it's not one that most beneficiaries or even analysts can understand. It's a very difficult program for people in Medicare to understand. It's hard to understand what you are getting, when you will get it, and under what circumstances," Steinberg says.
A Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report to Congress last March showed that Medicare Advantage, on average, cost 14% more per beneficiary than traditional Medicare. Steinberg says the new KFF study likely will renew criticism that Medicare Advantage is a windfall for the health insurance industry.
"The system as currently structured is clearly designed to promote the private health insurance industry for its own sake," he says. "That is not to say there aren't good plans out there that provide high-quality services at reasonable costs. But the payment system that is in place today, that was most recently revised in 2003, was designed to promote any and all private plans, regardless of what is efficient. There is no effort to reward quality or efficiency. It's just money for money's sake."
However, Zirkelbach says studies have shown that Medicare Advantage delivers higher quality of care and customer satisfaction than traditional Medicare, in part because of additional programs, such as disease management and care coordination plans.
Steinberg says the new programs and benefits that Medicare Advantage offers often are designed to attract healthier people.
"So they will add things like vision tests, which is nice, but they will make up for that by raising the costs for things like inpatient hospital stays or skilled nursing facilities and that way the plans become less attractive for sicker people and more attractive for healthy people," Steinberg says. "That is a troubling trend for all of Medicare. You end up with a system where the sicker people stay away from these plans, and with good reason. But then you have to ask 'are these plans doing what they were designed to do, which was to provide high quality and affordable care for everyone?'"
The employer movement to ban hiring smokers is just the latest—but not the last—intrusion of companies into the rights of individuals, and it's all perfectly legal, says Lewis Maltby, an expert on the issue.
"There are a lot of people in line to get hammered," says Maltby, who is president and founder of the Princeton, NJ-based National Work Rights Institute and author of Can They Do That? Retaking Our Fundamental Rights in the Workplace.
"This is not about smoking. This is about employers telling you what to do in your own home to cut down on the company's medical bill," he says.
As companies struggle to provide workers with healthcare coverage, there will be increased pressure to find ways to control costs through prevention and lifestyle changes. Maltby says the next target will be obese and overweight applicants and employees.
"The CDC has reported that obesity is rapidly overtaking smoking as the leading cause of preventable death. It is not the least bit speculative to say that employers are going to come after people for diet next," he says.
For the most part, unless those employees or applicants are classified as morbidly obese, and subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act, or some other state or federal antidiscrimination laws, Maltby says there really isn't much they can do about it.
"If you are just 20 or 40 pounds overweight, you have no protections. The HR manager can say ‘You're a fat slob. I don't want to hire you,'" Maltby says. "You go to court and the judge says to the HR manager 'Did you say that?' And he says 'You betcha your honor! That is exactly what I said. I don't like fat slobs and that is why I didn't hire him.' And his lawyer says 'I move the case be dismissed.' And the judge says 'motion granted,' because it's not illegal.
"An employer can refuse to hire you for any reason under the sun unless there is a statute that says a particular basis like age or race is not legally permissible."
Hospitals that have imposed hiring bans on tobacco users say it's less about cost and more about sending a message about healthy behaviors.
"Really we intend to model healthy behavior rather than just accepting the fact that it's a fact of life," says Walt Schwoeble, vice president for Human Resources at Akron (OH) Children's Hospital, which imposed a ban on hiring smokers in November 2008.
Schwoeble says there were also concerns that cigarette residue in smokers' clothing would trigger respiratory ailments for some patients. "I'm proud to be part of an organization that is willing to step forward and do the right thing," he says.
Schwoeble says ACH is sensitive to the notion of infringing upon employees' off-duty rights to engage in legal activities.
"I wouldn't be truthful if I said it never crossed our minds, but to me it is not an issue," he says. "Our intent is to employ the individuals who care the most about their health to begin with and model their behavior to the families and patients that come here. These candidates aren't our employees to begin with. We are just screening the candidates who are coming in the door."
Schwoeble says ACH has no plans to expand applicant or employee screens for "body mass index or diet or anything like that. Wellness is a huge initiative that our CEO [William H. Considine] is 100% behind. It's not to say it would never happen, but there is nothing in the foreseeable future that is in the planning stages to do that," he says.
Attorney Jacqueline B. Jones, a partner at the Syracuse, NY-based MacKenzie Hughes LLP, and a specialist in labor discrimination issues, says 29 states—including New York —have laws in place that protect smokers' off-duty rights. The laws were enacted after lobbying by the tobacco industry, she says.
Without similar state laws in place, Jones says it's likely that employer intrusions into employees' personal habits will grow. "There is a lot of talk in the labor employment arena about protecting folks who are overweight, protecting them against discrimination in the workplace. So, I suspect that we will see legislation to protect folks that are overweight," she says.
"You will definitely see more employers trying to encourage employees to be healthier, but in a way that is lawful," such as providing access to weight loss and smoking cessation programs, Jones says.
Maltby says hobbies could soon come under scrutiny. "If your boss is going to get exercised about your smoking at home, they aren't going to be thrilled about the motorcycle you ride," he says. "We've already seen a few companies say 'no motorcycles, no skydiving, none of that stuff.'"
Maltby says an employee's most-personal lifestyle could come into question.
"The problem is there isn't much in your personal life that doesn't affect medical costs, including your sex life, Sexually transmitted diseases are expensive, particularly HIV," he says. "Will employers go after sex life? There is no logical reason—in principle—why they shouldn't because there is money involved. Will they do it? Maybe not. Will they come after people with diet and exercise? Of course they will. That is why we see 1,000 wellness programs pop up every day."
Online job listings were up sharply in January in many employment sectors across the nation, with continued strong demand for nurses and healthcare technicians, a new report released today shows.
The Conference Board's Help Wanted Online Data Series report, which tracks more than 1,000 online job boards across the United States, found that advertised vacancies for highly skilled healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, such as registered nurses and radiographic technologists, increased by 24,500 listings in January, for a total of 567,800.
Demand for healthcare support personal, such as dental assistants and home healthcare aides, also rose by 6,500 listing for the month, for a total of 119,000, the report shows.
The Conference Board Associate Director Gad Levanon says the overall uptick of 382,000 job listings in most employment sectors in most areas of the country is further evidence that the economy is on the rebound. January's overall online advertised vacancies—which surpassed 4 million for the first time since November 2008—are consistent with listing growth in November and December and reflect recent strong growth in GDP numbers for the fourth quarter of 2009.
"The last three months have shown a sharp upturn in employer demand for workers," Levanon said. "These increases have brought us back near the labor demand levels that existed in November 2008 just prior to the huge losses resulting from the financial turmoil in the last quarter of 2008. This is very good news since these seasonally adjusted increases come in two months when we normally see employers cut back on advertising for workers."
The Conference Board report jives with the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary data, which show that the healthcare sector created 267,000 new jobs in 2009, including 22,000 payroll additions in December. However, BLS data also show the overall economy shed 85,000 jobs in December as the nation's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10%.
Of the 22,000 new jobs in the healthcare sector in December, the biggest job growth came from physicians' offices, with 9,000 payroll additions, and home health services, with 8,000 payroll additions. Physician offices added 55,000 jobs in 2009, BLS data show.
BLS figures also show that the healthcare sector—which includes everything from hospitals to outpatient surgery centers to podiatrists' offices—has added 631,000 jobs since the recession began in December 2007. In that same timeframe, the number of jobless people in the nation has risen from 7.7 million to 15.3 million.
The newest BLS employment data for January will be released on Friday.
The Conference Board data show that for every unemployed person looking for work as a healthcare practitioner or technical occupation in January, there were three advertised vacancies with an average wage of $32.64/hour. Because healthcare is a broad field, the report notes that the relative tightness of the labor market varies substantially from the higher-paying practitioner and technical jobs to the lower-paying support occupations.
For some lower-paid healthcare support occupations, such as dental assistants and pharmacy aides, there were more than two unemployed people for every advertised vacancy, with an average wage of $12.66/hour, The Conference Board report states.
Woody Guthrie must be spinning in his grave. His rousing labor song "Union Maid" warns working men and women about "goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid."
So what would Woody make of the internecine organizing battles for healthcare workers in California? The fight that pits the giant Service Employees International Union against the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers has been most remarkable for its very public vitriol. These guys hate each other, and they're not bashful about saying it.
"We don't trust them with our contracts, and we don't trust them with our dues," NUWH supporter Shayne Silba, a psychiatric technician with Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, said of the SEIU at a media conference.
I'll spare you the "he-said she said" of the fight, which started more than a year ago when the California leadership of an SEIU Oakland local was ousted by the national office amid allegations of financial mismanagement. The ousted SEIU officials formed the NUHW, and the battle was joined. For more than a year, California media have provided scintillating stories about the two sides throwing knives—and the knife drawer, pots, pans, and the kitchen sink—at one another.
It's been an ugly divorce.
Last week, SEIU suffered a major defeat when workers at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Southern California voted overwhelmingly to accept NUHW as their union. The vote capped months of bad-mouthing from both sides. Bad feelings linger.
"We heard they were thugs and henchmen and cronies out to destroy our union," Denny Henriques, an SEIU supporter and respiratory therapist at Sutter Delta Medical Center told the Los Angeles Times. "It wasn't true. They've represented us well."
Henriques wasn't talking about KP management's anti-union campaign. He was talking about NUHW.
In fact, about the only people you didn't hear from in the KP union battle was KP management. Wisely, KP watched from the sidelines, and kept quiet.
"Kaiser Permanente respects the right of our employees to choose whether they want to be represented by a union and which union will represent them," said John Nelson, a spokesman for KP. "We have a long history of working constructively with the unions that our employees select to represent them. We did not favor one union over the other in the elections . . . We will bargain in good faith with the certified union. Any questions concerning the outcome of the elections or next steps in the legal processes should be addressed to the NLRB."
A disclaimer: I'm not anti-union. If it wasn't for unions, we'd still have smudge-faced 9-year-olds working 12-hour days picking coal chunks off conveyor belts. Every American who's ever drawn a paycheck, whether or not they've ever been in a union, enjoys better working standards because of the hard-fought victories of organized labor. That is simply a fact.
But it must be asked: Does anyone in organized labor see how badly this California fight reflects on the union movement?
Does it instill public confidence and support for the labor movement—particularly in a sector as vital, personal and invasive as healthcare—when unions accuse each other of corruption and incompetence?
The fight in California comes as unions are lobbying for passage of the card check bill, which many are calling the most important piece of pro-labor legislation in the last 50 years. So, at a time when unions need public support, this California scorched earth campaign is remarkably dumb. It demonstrates that union leaders on both sides are not above being short-sighted, self-defeating, vindictive, and mean.
If I were a hospital or nursing home executive, I'd Google all of these media accounts, the snarky press releases from the unions, the interviews where the rival unions are calling one another out of touch, or corrupt, or ineffective, or all of the above, and I'd compile a thick dossier.
Then, when a healthcare union came to my hospital to organize, I'd hand out copies of the dossier to my employees, and highlight the accusations of corruption and incompetence. I'd pin up the derogatory interviews on the break room bulletin board, and I'd ask "Do you want these people representing you?"
Forget Solidarity Forever! Healthcare unions in California should quote Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
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The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has filed a motion for immediate relief to "protect the health and safety of hundreds of patients from dangerous conditions" in seven state-run psychiatric hospitals in Georgia, federal officials announced today.
The motion, filed late Thursday, seeks appointment of a monitor who will set targets and timetables for reducing the number of residents at the hospitals, and expand community-based services.
"States responsible for the care of individuals living in state-run facilities have a duty to protect them from harm," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division. "Individuals in Georgia's hospitals are being subjected to a widespread pattern of violence and are not being protected from preventable deaths. We need quick action to protect these individuals."
In response to the charges, Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Frank Shelp said in a prepared statement, "We have always preferred that people be served in communities where possible and that they should receive safe and effective care while in hospitals. What we disagree with is the notion that change can happen overnight or that there's no role for hospital care for those who need it and want it. We're busy building a continuum of care to best serve the people of Georgia in the appropriate places. The DOJ's motion, if adopted, would divert resources and endanger that progress."
Last year, Georgia and DOJ entered into an agreement to ensure that the patients were served in the most appropriate settings and that reported unlawful conditions in the hospitals were fixed. A federal judge has yet to approve the agreement.
DOJ said conditions at the hospitals continue to be dangerous and that hundreds of patients who could be placed in the community remain institutionalized and exposed to danger. "Georgia continues to fail to serve patients in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs, and preventable deaths, suicides, and assaults continue to occur with alarming frequency in the hospitals," DOJ said in a media release.
In his statement Friday, Shelp said his agency will "continue to improve and we're in the middle of major changes. Already the people we serve are safer are getting better care. What we need now is the resources and time to continue. Governor Perdue has provided us the resources. But this lawsuit by the Department of Justice would deny us the critical time we need.
"We've cooperated with the Department of Justice, we've invited them into our hospitals to make recommendations, and we've worked diligently to fulfill our settlement agreement. We will continue improving our hospitals because it's the right thing to do. But we will dispute every allegation in this motion with facts and law," he added.
More than a decade ago, in Olmstead v. L.C., the Supreme Court found that Georgia Regional Hospital in Atlanta was allegedly segregating two disabled patients who could have been served in more integrated settings. The high court ordered states to serve individuals with disabilities in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs. The same hospital involved in that landmark case, and the other six hospitals run by Georgia, continue to impermissibly segregate hundreds of individuals, according to DOJ.
In addition to the unlawful segregation, the feds reported that individuals in the hospitals are exposed to egregious harm. According to DOJ, some examples include:
In 2009, the state failed to supervise a patient who had previously killed. The patient assaulted and killed another patient in the hospital.
In 2008, hospital staff failed to intervene in a fight between patients, one of whom was knocked unconscious and died a few days later from blunt force trauma to the head.
In 2009, staff failed to supervise a patient who raped another individual.
In 2009, a patient committed suicide by hanging himself from an upended bed. DOJ had repeatedly warned hospital staff during on-site visits of the dangers posed by beds that were not bolted to the floor.
This month, the state failed to supervise an individual who expressed suicidal thoughts the day before she committed suicide.
The seven hospitals are East Central Regional Hospital, Georgia Regional Hospital at Savannah, Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta, Southwestern State Hospital, Central State Hospital, West Central Georgia Regional Hospital, and Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital.
