Bloomberg's Proposed Budget Cuts Could Cost The City Millions

NEW YORK MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWYER PROFFERS WARNING FOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR

NEW YORK, NY (May 26 2008) -- It could end up costing, not saving, the City of New York hundreds of millions of dollars if Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed plans to cut funds from city services includes hospitals and other city-run healthcare agencies, warned Richard Gurfein, a New York City personal injury lawyer who has tried dozens of serious medical malpractice cases against the City in his thirty-six plus years in legal practice.

“When budget cuts effect City hospitals,” Gurfein explained, “smaller City hospitals take a bigger hit and often outsource, or reduce paid staff, and replace them with part-time and ‘on-call’ attending doctors who are paid by the hour. The result is a decrease in the number and quality of healthcare providers in city hospitals, and a dramatic increase in the number of medical malpractice claims filed against the city by injured parties.”

Gurfein, a partner in the New York personal injury law firm of Gurfein Douglas, noted that properly funded hospitals usually have enough doctors on any given day or night to insure that every shift is covered. In tight budget times, Gurfein noted, it is not unusual for city hospitals to save money by reducing the ranks of the house staff or the full time doctors employed at the hospital.

“New York City has careened from budget crisis to budget crisis for decades,” Gurfein reflected. “In the 1980s,there was a significant push to save money by having women deliver their babies with the aid of midwives instead of full-time staff obstetricians.

“For most simple deliveries,” he explained, “the use of a midwife would present no increase in risk to either the mother or the child. But in a significant number of cases an obstetrician is absolutely necessary, especially in emergency situations where the midwife or nurse monitoring labor is not sufficiently trained or lacks the ability to recognize an emergency.”

One case Gurfein handled back in the 80s involved a midwife who was monitoring a patient’s labor using an electronic fetal monitor. Based on her assessment of the strips, she determined the baby was doing well and that labor was progressing normally.

“Disaster struck,” Gurfein said, “when it was discovered that the strips, which should have been used to monitor the baby’s heart, were actually monitoring the mother's heartbeat and not the baby's, which concealed the fact that the baby was in significant distress. The baby suffered permanent brain damage as a result.”

"Saving a thousand dollars in provider fees," he added, "wound up costing the City five and a half million dollars in legal claims."

Gurfein points out that the average malpractice payment by the city in 2005 was $445,000 (compared to the nationwide average of $298,000 and the NY statewide average of $405,000); and, that one out of every six New Yorkers receives healthcare services from the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, the agency that owns and operates the city's municipal hospitals.

“Reducing the payouts by only 10% of the $145 million paid out in 2005,” Gurfein calculated, “would yield an additional $14.5 million dollars to keep doctors on-call. You do the math.”