Personal Injury Law

St. Joseph's Scandal

St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, a hospital known and respected in no small measure for its cardiology department, is being accused of conduct that goes well beyond medical malpractice. The allegations are beyond stunning: at least 369 of St. Joseph's heart patients have received coronary stents that were not medically necessary, putting these patients at greater risk of complication or further injury. People with minimal blockages were allegedly given stents and told they had near complete heart blockages.

Stents are used to fight artery blockages. St. Joseph Medical Center is a hospital that puts in a lot of stents. Many patients drive past University of Maryland Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital to get stents put in at St. Joseph's. Think about how remarkable an accomplishment this was for St. Joe. Now, one doctor trying to earn a few extra bucks may have tarnished the reputation of a hospital and a lot of great work done by a lot of great doctors, nurses and other health care providers. Obviously, the biggest tragedy is clearing the patients who have been subjected not only to an unnecessary heart procedure, but have likely also been over- medicated, as if their condition had been more serious. But I also feel bad for the good guys at St. Joseph who were not involved in any of this and are now tarnished by all of this.

The doctor at the center of this scandal lost his privileges at the hospital last summer without notice to his patients or any comment from hospital officials. There is a lot of information that needs to come out, but this raises the obvious question: if hospital officials knew something was going on, why wait so long to convey this information to patients? If it is important for St. Joseph's to tell patients now, why were patients not told this summer? I don't want to prejudge this, but it is a question that is going to be raised.

Do these 369 patients have malpractice claims? I don't think there is going to be significant injury in most of the cases. But you can certainly expect some valid claims to arise.

Full post as published by Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).