Posted on 03/12/2008 10:34:40 AM PDT by Harrius Magnus
States May Warn Doctors to Follow Smoker Treatment Guidelines or be Sued for Medical Malpractice
State health commissioners may soon begin warning about medical malpractice law suits which could be brought by smokers against physicians who fail to follow federal and other guidelines in treating them, putting pressure on the medical profession similar to that put on the tobacco industry by earlier smoker law suits.
Public interest law professor John Banzhaf, whom the media has dubbed a "driving force behind the lawsuits that have cost tobacco companies billions of dollars," and the "law professor who masterminded litigation against the tobacco industry," has written to the health commissioners of the fifty states suggesting that they warn their state's doctors about such law suits based upon a recent article in a leading medical journal and an even more recent study about saving smoker lives.
The letter notes a recent study which shows that physicians are killing more than 40,000 American smokers each year by failing to follow federal guidelines which mandate that the doctor warn the smoking patient about the many dangers of smoking and provide effective medical treatment for the majority who wish to quit.
"The families of any one of those 40,000 victims – or the hundreds of thousands more who suffer heart attacks, strokes, amputations, blindness, or other problems because of their smoking – could sue physicians for malpractice for failing to follow the standard of medical care mandated by these guidelines," says Banzhaf, who serves as Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), America's first antismoking organization.
Indeed, the New York City Department of Health has already warned that "because physician intervention can be so effective, failure to provide optimal counseling and treatment [for smoking] is failure to meet the standard of care – and could be considered malpractice."
Also, a medical journal noted that the "failure of many doctors and hospitals to deal with tobacco use and dependence raises the question of whether this failure could be considered malpractice, given the Public Health Service guidelines' straightforward recommendations, their efficacy in preventing serious disease and cost-effectiveness. . . . a court could have sufficient basis to find that the failure to adequately treat the main cause of preventable disease and death in the US qualifies as a violation of the legal duty that doctors and hospitals owe to patients habituated to tobacco use and dependence.”
The US Public Health Service’s Clinical Practice Guideline for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence provide that “every patient who uses tobacco should be offered at least one of [two] treatments.” Many major guidelines by other respected medical bodies – e.g., the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, etc. – also require that smoking patients receive not just warnings but also treatment, including counseling.
However, as the Partnership for Prevention recently noted, in a report sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the WellPoint Foundation, fewer than 30% of smoking patients receive even the minimal treatment required by the guidelines. The report estimates that this refusal by physicians and hospitals to follow the Guidelines kills more than 40,000 smokers each year.
Banzhaf's letter to the health commissioners suggested that: "Since many in the antismoking community (including hundreds of organizations, many with their own attorneys), as well as lawyers associated with antismoking groups and other lawyers in private practice, are now considering how to proceed with the article’s litigation suggestion, the need to remind doctors of their responsibilities and of their potential legal liability is paramount – especially since their continued refusal to even warn many patients about smoking, much less to follow the guidelines’ requirements of effective intervention, kills over 40,000 patients each year."
"Since physician malpractice kills over 40,000 smokers annually – more than motor vehicle or product liability accidents – it should not be surprising if antismoking lawyers, as well as those in private practice working on contingency fees, find physicians who deliberately flout federal guidelines to be a major target of litigation."
PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III Executive Director and Chief Counsel Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) 2013 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20006, USA (202) 659-4310 // http://ash.org
As it should!
In the case of volunteer work, as much as it is a good thing to give to the community, it doesn't hurt to let them do without you once in awhile. You can call it "increase their appreciation (of me) day"
I think it is really nice for you to take the time to work on community efforts, I can not say I have done such a thing for several years now.
The last time I volunteered, it was at a church food bank handing out groceries to those less fortunate - I did so for the one year I committed to. I was appalled at the superior attitudes the unfortunate ones took to those who served them. It sort of left a bad taste in my mouth, so I have not made such a commitment again - I commend you for doing so.
WOW! That's against the Nurse Practice Act in NY for a nurse to prescribe any medication. It's called practicing medicine. Even nurse practitioners in NYS have to be under a doctor to prescribe.
Maybe in your state it became a mandate to have it ordered on smokers. That would be surprising since there are contraindications to it. Perhaps an intern, physicians assistant or nurse practitioner ordered it if it was a teaching hospital. I have a feeling someone wasn't honest with who ordered it.
Vaccinations for the Flu and Pneumococcal Pneumonia are offered without the doctor writing the order. I believe it's another government guideline thing. The government figured that since your already at a health-care provider, it's a good time to vaccinate if you want it.
The doctor has a chance to say they don't want their patient to have a vaccine. The neurosurgeons generally don't want their patients vaccinated post-op. If you get a mild fever it could complicate assessing your recovery.
You know, we should just shoot smokers or offer them hemlock.
Of course, that takes away the tax stream.
Let’s confiscate their money as a preemptive move and then offer them hemlock.
I am very frustrated when a patient will not take very necessary medication (for their high blood pressure, etc.) We try to work it out with the doctor speaking with the patient, doctor changing the order etc.
Many times we totally see the patients point. And sometimes the patient has given up.
A little side story. I had a patient who had so many things wrong with his body he was on medications for his heart, kidneys, diabetes, wounds, etc. He'd bargain with you as to what he'd take. So you'd really just like to offer the most basic. Then within the hour he'd throw-up. He'd never tell you he was nauseous so you could get him medication for that.
I wasn't surprised he died. But it bothered me he was so resistant to treatment and medication. Treatment more than medication. Another nurse said, "I love those patients. They don't want anything. They are the easiest patients."
That's not me. I go home and feel bad I couldn't help them.
He doesn't want his business to suffer. If smokers can go to a competitor's bar...
Yikes, I can totally understand that, I would have had the same reaction.
My situation is different than what you experienced. While those of us in the kitchen are volunteers, the people we are feeding are paying for their food. Wednesday is Bingo night and it is one of the ways the Moose Lodge raises money. The sale of food and bingo.
You sound like a nurse that would not last long in the hospital I was in.
I’ll never set foot in that hospital again.
I understand you wishing to defend the nurses, and I would normally do so as well because I actually have more respect for nurses than I do for doctors, but I can not defend these. There was not a single one of them, including the night nurse, that had not been in the field for less than 10 years.
They'd detect nicotine in my blood stream, even tho I don't smoke. I use nicotine gun, or lozengers and sometimes even the patch. And I'll do it forever if I have too.
I'm not sure what your company is doing is legal?
sw
I suspect its a heck of a lot easier for the doc to tell the smoker to get lost than to get him to quit smoking!!!
Great idea.
So physicians have spent more time at the firing range... What’s the big deal?
Doesn’t anyone remember Prohibition’s creation of incentive for smugglers and bootleggers which then led to organized crime and the drug underground of today?
Here are some big time Nico Nazis.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist by a long shot, but I’m wondering more and more if it won’t be beneficial at some time in the near(?) future to know as much as we can medically and to know how to treat ourselves medicinally with herbs, etc.
It may end up being the only route available to us unless we comply with this or that required by the government before we can get their medical treatment.
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