Return to main website

Tally of improperly accessed UCLA patient records tops 1,000

November 4, 2008

The number of patients whose hospital records were improperly accessed by employees at the UCLA Hospital System has topped 1,000, state officials said Wednesday.

Kathleen Billingsley, director of the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Healthcare Quality, said the records of 1,041 patients have been breached, up from 939 in the state’s last report in August.

The total number of UCLA workers who have been disciplined for breaching patient records now stands at 165, up from 127 since August.

Wednesday’s report was the sixth issued by the California Department of Public Health after articles ran in The Times this year about UCLA employees prying into the records of celebrities and prominent patients, including California First Lady Maria Shriver, actress Farrah Fawcett and singer Britney Spears.

Read Article: Los Angeles Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Court weighs amputee’s case, limits on drug suits

Supreme Court justices struggled Monday with when people hurt by federally approved drugs may sue for their injuries in state courts.

 

At its broadest, the case could lead to a sea-change in how manufacturers are held accountable when something goes wrong with a prescription drug because of inadequate labeling.

 

Yet, arguments Monday suggested the justices could also end up with a narrow decision based on the specific facts of the dispute brought by a woman whose arm had to be amputated after a drug was wrongly administered and she developed gangrene.

 

Diana Levine won a $6.7 million jury award against drug maker Wyeth. It was upheld by the Vermont Supreme Court.

 

Read Article: USA Today

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Nev. cap on medical damage awards draws criticism

As 59-year-old Richard Krikalo lumbers through the office of a junkyard he helps manage, he bumps into a desk and clips a wastebasket with his right leg.

Krikalo is almost blind in his right eye and has trouble with depth perception and peripheral vision.

 

“I go to the buffet and bump into people carrying food,” he growls, shaking his head, his static right eye unable to follow his blinking left one. “It’s embarrassing. The only time I don’t have to worry about bumping into something is when I’m in bed.”

Krikalo blames a doctor for a botched retina reattachment operation in August 2007. But lawyers tell him it’s economically unfeasible to litigate his complicated case, or that time limitations are an issue.

 

For that, he blames medical malpractice reforms of the 2004 Nevada Legislature.

“With this new malpractice law in place, I can’t even get a lawyer to go after who’s responsible for what happened,” the Las Vegas resident said, displaying rejection letters from attorneys. “There’s hardly any protection for the consumer any more. Now everything is in favor of doctors.”

 

Read Article: Mercury News

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Sprint faces $1.2B federal suit about early-termination fees

Sprint Nextel Corp. faces a $1.2 billion federal class-action lawsuit because of early-termination fees the company charged.

 

In July, a California state court ruled that Overland Park-based Sprint (NYSE: S) must refund $73 million to affected customers. That ruling is not yet final.

Earlier this month, Sprint began pro-rating the penalties charged to new or renewing customers who cancel contracts early.

 

Scott Bursor, who represented the plaintiffs in California, fills the same role for the federal class-action suit, filed Oct. 29 in a U.S. District Court in California. The suit alleges that the $150 to $200 fees violated the Federal Communications Act and laws in every state, and says the fees from 1999 to present total about $1.2 billion.

 

In the California case, “we proved that the fees bear no relation to any cost incurred by the company,” Bursor said in a Monday release.

 

“And we proved that the fees were established as an arbitrary penalty to try to prevent dissatisfied customers from leaving,” he said in the release. “Now we will prove that the fees violate federal law as well.”

 

Read Article: Business Journal

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Restaurant sued after teens killed in crash

The mother of a teen killed in a crash is suing a restaurant where the other driver allegedly drank too much before the head-on collision. Ercilia Velora Norrid seeks up to $7 million and other damages in her wrongful death and negligence suit against Wingsport LP, doing business as Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar.

 

On Oct. 14, Electra High School students Adreanna Norrid, 18, and Courtney Mengwasser, 16, were killed when the car they were riding in collided with a pickup truck traveling in their lane, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Their friend driving the car was critically injured.

 

The other driver, Michael Nason, 40, of Electra, was killed in the crash on the narrow rural road near Electra, and his passenger was injured, according to DPS.

Tests results released Monday show that Nason’s blood-alcohol level was nearly 0.27 percent at the time of the crash, more than three times the state’s legal limit of 0.8 percent, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange told The Associated Press.

 

Read Article: Houston Chronicle

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Newer Posts »