Memorial has paid out almost $13 million in malpractice suits since 2003

Eugene Schneider went to Memorial Hospital to alleviate chronic pain in his back. He says he left partially paralyzed and unable to walk.

Kevin Anderson went to Memorial for orthopedic surgery. He says he left with a permanent brain injury and epilepsy.

Beverly Morgan went to Memorial with internal bleeding. She says she left with a detached retina and a head injury.

While their stories are as different as the medical problems that led them to Memorial, Schneider, Anderson and Morgan all have at least two things in common - each sued Memorial for medical malpractice, and pocketed a six-figure settlement.

They're not alone.

Since 2003, Memorial's insurer has forked over more than $12.7 million to settle various lawsuits brought by former patients or their loved ones.

In the first quarter of 2009 alone, medical malpractice cases at Memorial have reached more than a half-million dollars.

Memorial Health System, a city-owned enterprise that includes three hospitals on two campuses, said the recent settlements don't reflect a pattern of negligence.

"Unfortunately, lawsuits are part of health care everywhere these days," Memorial said in a statement.

The same information was requested from Penrose-St. Francis Health Services Thursday afternoon. A spokeswoman for the privately owned hospital, which, unlike Memorial, is not required to make that public, said she was unable to obtain the information on such short notice.

Attorney Al Adelman, a partner at a Maryland-based law firm that represents about 25 hospitals around the country, said litigation comes with the territory.

"There's an old saying in our business that we divide all the doctors into two categories: those who have been sued and those who will be sued," said Adelman, a past president of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Memorial, which serves more than 150,000 patients annually, said it strives to provide safe, high quality care.

"Memorial recognizes that it is a privilege to be entrusted with people's health care needs, and we take this privilege very seriously," the hospital's statement said.

A 2008 report by a risk management consulting company showed that "Memorial's claim severity was less than the Colorado benchmark" in four of the last five years studied, Memorial said.

Still, Memorial acknowledged that mistakes happen.

"Patients come to us to be healed, not harmed," the statement said. "When mistakes are made, we set into motion a comprehensive and systematic process of evaluating the contributing process break-downs and taking reasonable steps to address and rectify the issue."

But for some patients, it's too little, too late.

In some instances, a lawsuit emerges.

Memorial, along with a group of health care organizations, self-insures against lawsuits. Memorial pays up to a $25,000 deductible. Claims exceeding $25,000 are covered by insurance.

Lawsuits and settlements are not unique to Memorial.

For example, Denver Health Medical Center paid $4 million to the family of a young woman who died of internal bleeding in the city's jail after she had been examined by hospital staff.

In Los Angeles, county supervisors recently agreed to pay $3 million to the family of a woman who died on a waiting-room floor, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Memorial insists that settling a lawsuit doesn't necessarily mean the hospital did anything wrong. Other factors, such as the cost of fighting the lawsuit in court, factor into the decision.

"Each case is evaluated on its own merits," Memorial said.

Adelman said he's settled cases just because he didn't think a doctor accused of wrongdoing would make a good witness even though the doctor didn't do anything wrong. Other cases, such as "brain damaged baby cases," carry the potential of a large jury verdict, he said.

"If you can settle a case like that for several hundred thousand dollars and take away the risk of running into a several million dollar verdict, a lot of hospitals and their insurance companies just take the conservative route and go ahead and settle the case," he said.
The most recent settlements involving Memorial have been costly.

They include:
· A $500,000 settlement with Anderson, who was in Memorial's intensive care unit in May 2006 when he went into "cardiac arrest while nursing staff had left the room." Anderson claims he suffered "a hypoxic/anoxic brain injury which has resulted in and caused seizures and a seizure disorder." Anderson declined to comment, saying he signed a confidentiality agreement.

· A $232,500 settlement with Morgan, who also claims being injured at Memorial in May 2006. After undergoing a colonoscopy, Morgan told an employee that she needed the restroom. The employee told her "to get out of the wheelchair and walk across the room to a restroom." Morgan fell and couldn't get up. While she was lying on the floor, an employee opened a door and hit on the head, causing a detached retina and closed-head injury.

· A $350,000 settlement with Schneider, who went to Memorial in November 2005 for placement of an "intrathecal pain pump" and ended up partially paralyzed.

"According to our expert witnesses, the standard of nursing care at Memorial was deficient as it related to Mr. Schneider's care," his attorney, Fred Paoli Jr., said Tuesday.

During surgery, Dr. Steven Benecke tried for more than an hour to place a catheter into Schneider's spine before abandoning the procedure, court documents state. When Schneider woke up, he couldn't move his right leg, prompting Benecke to order tests that revealed that Schneider had a developed a blood clot in the spinal canal, documents state.

"That's a risk of the surgery, but what you have to do is monitor that for several days and if doesn't dissipate and the strength doesn't come back, then you have to evacuate it surgically," Paoli said. "Our claim was that (the hospital staff didn't properly monitor) that and the hematoma eventually grew and partially paralyzed him in the legs."

Schneider, a former advertising director at a local television station, received a separate settlement from Benecke, who was also named in the lawsuit, Paoli said.

"But the settlement with Dr. Benecke is confidential," he said.

Adelman, the Maryland attorney, said lawsuits and settlements have "dramatically" changed the way that hospitals practice medicine. He said doctors will order additional tests, keep patients in the hospital longer and take other precautions to protect themselves, driving up the cost of health care.

"There's just a whole lot of embedded costs that really are driven up by people covering themselves so that if there is a bad outcome," he said, "they can say they did everything that was possible."
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