Navy, Civilian Hospital Systems Differ Greatly
Posted on: Thursday, 16 March 2006, 18:00 CST
By Paul Pinkham
Comparing the Jacksonville Naval Hospital's record with civilian hospitals is difficult because of sketchy data and two vastly different systems of medical care. To compare malpractice claims versus civilian hospitals, the Times-Union found the number of malpractice lawsuits filed against civilian hospitals in the Jacksonville region, as determined by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. The latest data available was from 2003.
The newspaper also looked at the number of total civilian hospital beds in the region, according to the agency, and determined that there was one lawsuit filed for every 66 hospital beds in the calendar years 2002 and 2003.
There was no comparable data for the Navy hospital, so the newspaper could use only known cases for the same time period and found that there was one lawsuit for every 12 beds.
Navy officials challenged the comparison, noting that:
-- The naval hospital is named in all suits against Navy doctors in Jacksonville, while doctors in private medicine can be sued without a hospital being involved.
-- Civilian hospitals also are more adept at settling cases confidentially before they're filed, said a lawyer who has handled both types of cases.
"[The Navy has] no mechanism to resolve these claims before the patient or family member pursues formal legal action," attorney Reginald Luster said.
On the other hand,
-- Nearly a fourth of those who use Jacksonville Naval Hospital are active duty personnel, barred from suing by federal law.
-- Lawsuits that were filed against the naval hospital all involved procedures normally done in hospitals, so the cases were comparable to those mentioned in claims against the civilian hospitals.
-- Lawyers who represent families in claims against the Navy hospital said military culture discourages lawsuits against the government because authority is rarely questioned and the chain of command is a time-honored tradition.
Source: Florida Times Union
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