PA and NP Double Team Patient and Still Miss the Diagnosis. Jury Awards $20 Million.
Only this will stop the devaluation of real physicians. MONEY.
Two nurses who saw Luppold allegedly entered worrisome symptoms into his medical records, including that the foot was turning purple and was cool to the touch.
Hmmm. Purple. Cold. Sounds like sciatica, right? Well, that’s what physician assistant, Charles Loucraft, at Lowell General, thought and sent the patient home.
But wait, there’s more:
Six days later, Luppold returned to the emergency department complaining that the pain in his ankle had reached 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. He was seen by two nurses, one of whom had seen him the first time, and was then examined by a nurse practitioner, Carlos Flores. Nonetheless, Flores concluded that it was still just sciatica and sent Luppold home.
Ahhh, definitely sciatica.
So, who rescues the patient?
Four days later, with the pain no better, Luppold called his primary care physician at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington. The doctor performed an ultrasound and diagnosed left leg deep vein thrombosis and arterial thrombosis and immediately took him to the emergency room, Higgins said.
That’s right, his primary care doctor!!!!!
And this cost the patient his leg, as it had to be amputated, and someone or something $20 million.
The article doesn’t say who is being sued. We know that the midlevels will get off scot-free and are roaming around continuing their malpractice on other patients right now. Either the attending docs will was the target or, hopefully, the hospital itself got it. We are just praying the publicity ruins the reputation of these places filled with unqualified workers and understaffed by REAL physicians.
Who got sued?
Am I the only one cynical enough to fear that the primary care doc is the one who got sued?
My local community hospital routinely admits elderly patients with chest pain to observation where they are seen and discharged by a PA in about 24 hours. Eventually, they will send one home to die and some lawyer will appropriately claim that the patient did not receive the standard of care; that is, at least until the standard of care is dumbed down to survival of the fittest who can live through LELT care!
My wife just read the article and immediately gave the correct diagnosis, with no formal medical training. That is one thing she has in common with those midlevels. Who do I have to pay off to obtain full practice authority for physician’s spouses?
These lessons will take years to learn. The hospital administration has likely changed during this time. If these midlevels are employees, then their employer will be responsible. If they are independent contractors, they or their insurance will have minimal liability. Attorneys follow the deep pocket. As physicians, we must never do curbside consults for anyone, lest we be drawn into such cases. Let the buyer beware.
I’m sure the ‘collaborating’ physician’s insurance also took the hit. One of the many reasons I refuse to oversee midlevels.
Yeah, when I was told the group practice was taking on N.P.’s it was understood I’d be on the hook for malpractice as a “collaborating” physician. Turned out I got a great N.P. and she grabbed me when she got a tough case every time. Took care of the “simple” stuff which was o.k. The N.P.’s where I worked didn’t have hospital privileges and that was fine with them. I was lucky in that my N.P. was older, floor nursing for a few years, became an oncology nurse for 8 years and fed poisons to the unfortunates. She’d been around before getting the Master’s and N.P. degree. Did very well in practicing with me and was a good practice extender. She was older and retired before I did. I didn’t take on a new N.P. as I was a few years from retirement myself.
The danger here is a cocky, under trained person. Independent N.P. practice is fraught with disastrous danger without M.D. oversight.
The good news is that there will always be a need for physicians.
Somebody’s got to take the hit when the lawsuits are settled.
At least there was a judgment against the hospital which may prove instructive for other hospitals. Money does indeed talk. In some places an expert witness MD can’t testify in a malpractice case against a mid level because the “standard of care is different” They want the same privileges and income but not the same level of accountability. Good deal if you can get it, I guess
https://apnews.com/article/politics-health-st-cloud-minnesota-6bc59242e8ec3ec84c94078f1053102f
This is a HUGE case in MN and only in the fine print do you find the patient was d/c inappropriately by the PA despite complaining of skyrocketing pain and numbness in the post op leg. These private groups too often defer “rounding” to their PA’s and NP’s, without laying eyes on their own patients before discharge, to the detriment of both the patient, and now the pocketbook of St. Cloud Orthopedics.
This is horrifying! A purple cold foot is not an emergency situation any more? Feel so bad for this poor patient. The DOCTORS I used to work with would’ve handled this as the dire emergency it is – but these NP/PAs, “Must be sciatica!”.🤦🏼♀️
Dear God!! To lose a leg because of NP’s and PA’s misdiagnosis!!!
I’d sue them, the hospital and would seriously consider suing the State for allowing non-physician practitioners to practice medicine without a license!!!
This is the new “acceptable,” the unquestioned norm. Like daily mass shootings. Of course, nothing can be done. Stay grim and carry on.
Agreed. We need some level of security at schools. Maybe not so many glass doors you can simply shoot through…