The court found that the hospital acted in a product seller role.
Since the patient was charged for the medication separately from the
service it was used for — the spine surgery — it opened itself up to
the product liability suit. Another example would be if a hospital's
chargemaster showed that it charged patients $25 for 2 pills of aceta-
minophen. If an uninsured patient is then charged for those 2 pills
A P R I L 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 4 3
While overall malpractice
claims related to anesthesia
care are declining, the pro-
portion of outpatient claims
has increased in comparison
to inpatient ones, says
Richard J. Kelly, MD, JD,
MPH, FCLM, clinical associ-
ate professor of anesthesi-
ology and perioperative care
at the University of California
Irvine School of Medicine.
Dr. Kelly recently completed a study looking at the rate of anesthesia-related malpractice
claims between 2005 and 2013 (osmag.net/FX6Ybo). In it, outpatient and inpatient payment
reports decreased during that time by 24% and 45% respectively, though outpatient payments
as a percentage of all payments increased from 19% in 2005 to 25% in 2013. Dr. Kelly says he
believes the increase is due largely to the growth of the outpatient surgery arena, and that all
providers should be paying close attention to anesthesia safety to help reduce their risk.
"The incidence of both inpatient and outpatient malpractice claims declined overall during the
study period," says Dr. Kelly. "But, the inpatient claims came down much more than outpatient
claims." — Kendal Gapinski
ANESTHESIA LAWSUITS
Mixed Malpractice News For Anesthesia Providers
• SUIT SHIFT Outpatient anesthesia-related malpractice claims are now outpacing
inpatient claims, a new study has found.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
