Miscellaneous

Big teaching-hospital cuts after Oregon high court ruling

By Walter Olson, Ted Frank, and David Nieporent

But they told us the malpractice crisis was just a myth dept. (Associated Press):

Oregon Health & Science University plans to cut at least 200 jobs and raise tuition by at least 10 percent to free the money needed for higher insurance costs following an Oregon Supreme Court ruling.

The December ruling cleared the way for the family of a brain-damaged child to pursue malpractice damages from the university. It effectively eliminated a liability cap of $200,000 designed to protect state agencies from major damage awards.

The cutbacks, expected to be announced Friday, were first reported by The Oregonian newspaper. Besides trimming jobs and hiking tuition, OHSU expects to restructure or close clinical, research and education programs, and scale back construction on Portland's South Waterfront.

OHSU said the court ruling will add $30 million a year in insurance and administrative expenses. Though that's only 2 percent of OHSU's annual operating budget of about $1.5 billion, it amounts to more than 60 percent of its annual support from the state's general fund. ...

OHSU is Portland's largest private employer with about 12,000 staff.

(cross-posted from Point of Law).

Full post as published by Overlawyered on January 25, 2008 (boomark / email).