While the following story doesn’t have anything to do with New Jersey law, it does bring up two important factors in medical malpractice and medical safety that could be applicable anywhere. So forgive the geographical irrelevance in this story, and instead focus on these two elements: intoxicated doctors and medical malpractice lawsuit caps.
The state of California has a motion on the docket this November that would add new rules that would require doctors to submit to random drug and alcohol testing. Another rule would significantly elevate the cap on medical malpractice payouts, pushing it from $250,000 to more than four times that amount ($1.1 million).
It’s astonishing that drug and alcohol testing rules aren’t more common in the medical field. Until recently, they were practically unheard of. There was simply an expectation that people in such an important field wouldn’t abuse drugs, alcohol or other substances before taking on a job that can mean life or death for a patient.
This shouldn’t even be an issue, really. Drug and alcohol screenings should be required for medical professionals — and even during this time where they aren’t necessarily required, any medical professional who works on a patient under the influence is acting in an incredibly negligent manner. They should be held accountable for their recklessness.
Which brings us to medical malpractice lawsuits, and the payouts that they can give to affected patients. Limits on the maximum amount of compensation, or caps, are common though the caps vary from state to state. It is important to realize that even though your particular medical malpractice case could be horrifying, you are still bound to these caps — though there could be special circumstances that allow you to exceed the cap.
Source: The Press Enterprise, “DECISION 2014: Prop. 46 seeks to raise medical malpractice cap,” Michael R. Blood, Associated Press, Oct. 13, 2014
