Lexington Kentucky Personal Injury Law Blog

In a unanimous decision, the Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled against medical review panels for malpractice claims. The state government had imposed the requirement that malpractice claims undergo review by medical panels before advancing to court in 2017. The medical review panel legislation had been put forward by a state senator who was also a physician.

The Supreme Court's chief justice struck down the new law because it denied people access to courts when they had been injured by another party. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, a circuit court judge had ruled against the law in October 2017. He based that decision on the lack of any public benefit from a law that appeared to protect the health care industry.

Residents are medical school graduates who typically participate in graduate medical programs and train in specialized fields of medicine. It may be said they are both student and healthcare provider. Although they are not yet board eligible or board-certified physicians, they are permitted to write prescriptions, which can be filled at any pharmacy. Kentucky patients naturally have reason to rely on these prescriptions the same as they would from any other doctor.

This makes a presentation given at the American Academy of Pediatrics all the more disturbing. The AAP report revealed that residents of all levels made errors when writing pediatric prescriptions despite the fact they were expected to be able to write them correctly from the first day of their residency. Apparently, the primary issue involved the residents' collective unfamiliarity with electronic prescription systems.

Because many nursing home residents are on the federal Medicare or Medicaid programs, most nursing homes in Kentucky have to pay careful attention to federal rules and regulations that are binding on homes that take patients who have this federally subsidized health insurance.

One of the requirements is that a nursing home have adequate staffing. Specifically, there must be enough licensed nurses available in the nursing home that they can, collectively, cover the needs of each patient in the home. This type of care must be available at all times.

A medical malpractice trial that involves a patient from Northern Kentucky and several hospitals in the greater Cincinnati area, which includes parts of Northern Kentucky has begun. The doctor who is the defendant in this trial is reportedly evading criminal allegations of fraud but has denied doing anything wrong.

The woman also seeks compensation from the hospitals that allowed the doctor to practice medicine in their facilities.