Utah Senate Bill 79, "Health Reform - Medical Malpractice Amendments", is sponsored by Senator Peter Knudson and attempts to raise the level of evidence required to show emergency room medical malpractice claims.  In the same bill Senator Knudson wants to compromise the usually excellent care that Utah citizens usually enjoy.  Knudson compromises care by proposing to increase oversight of out-of-state medical expert witnesses making them subject to disciplinary action if they give testimony that is false or lacking scientific basis.

The clear and convincing evidence requirement would effectively grant immunity to emergency room physicians when they negligently treat people who rely on their expertise.   "It's not just a little change -- clear and convincing evidence is a standard that is close to quasi criminal," said Charlie Thronson, a senior partner at Parsons, Behle & Latimer and an officer of the Utah Association for Justice (UAJ.) This quote was reported by the Salt Lake Tribune.

The "increased oversight" is simply an attempt to intimidate well-meaning physicians who come to Utah to testify against local physicians who have committed medical malpractice.  Any attorney who practices medical malpractice in Utah will tell you that few, if any physicians, in Utah will coneven consider testifying in a medical malpractice case against a fellow Utah physician.  Utah is a relatively small state and it appears that almost all physicians know each other or suspect that they will meet any physician they may testify against.  This conflict, whether the offending physician is found liable or not, clearly discourages any other local physician from testifying for the plaintiff.  If this law is allowed to pass it will have a chilling effect on medical malpractice claims in Utah.  Other physicians from out-of-state will simply stop coming to Utah.

The best place for the negligence of a physician to be proved is in a fair court of law.  If we allow this bill to pass it will allow physicians to implement care that escapes scrutiny.  This is bad law.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that "Karla Glodowski still cries when she talks about what happened to her 8-year-old son, Christopher."  It appears that Chrispopher suffered an anoxic injury that left him with permanent brain injury as a result of emergency room negligence.

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