interesting item in American Medical News

[lban...@gmail.com]

LIABILITY BY LOCALITY: PRACTICAL STANDARD OR OUTDATED NOTION?
Some say an old rule for deciding negligence by local, versus national, care standards protects rural medicine. Others say it invites risks.
By Amy Lynn Sorrel, amednews staff .

As efforts to reform the medical liability system plow forward, some jurisdictions still adhere to a long-standing rule for judging the standard of care in malpractice cases. Whether in case law or in legislation, about 20 states maintain some version of the so-called locality rule, under which physician liability may be measured based on local practice customs instead of a national standard of care, according to a 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The locality could be the physician's community, one similar to it, or the entire state. [...]

Read the entire article in American Medical News:

www.amednews.com/2010/prsa0118

SENDER'S COMMENT: Locality Rule developments and considerations FYI
Sent by: Louise Andrew

[Judge Thomas]

I have struggled with the Locality Rule, and the one area in which I
have a significant problem is with respect to board certification. As
I understand it, the principles applicable to board certification in a
particular specialty do not depend upon local practice. Rather, they
depend upon universal principles associated with that practice whether
you practice in Seattle, Washington or in Atlanta, Georgia. Am I
correct? If I am correct, why in the world is there any need for a
local rule where the defendant is board certified?

Neil

[Gary Helmbrecht]

I think the local rule is outdated. What is important is the type of
practice. In other words, a physician practicing in a small rural hospital
will do things differently (in some circumstances but not all or even most)
than a physician in an urban or university hospital mainly due to the
limited availability of technology in the former. Nonetheless, the standard
of care is for the most part, national.

Gary Helmbrecht, M.D.

Neil

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