Page 15 - Anatomy of a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

SVMIC Anatomy of a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

a lawsuit in another state because his local facility contracted

with an out-of-state provider.

Not all jurisdictional dilemmas are created by telehealth. Take
for example, the pathologist who interpreted slide specimens

for a hospital located in another state and unintentionally
found himself in a very unfriendly forum.

CASE STUDY

A Tennessee pathology group contracted with a hospital in
southern Illinois to perform pathology services. The

specimens were interpreted in Tennessee and the findings

reported to the hospital physicians in southern Illinois.

The 28-year-old female patient was a resident of

Chicago who was under the care of physicians in that city.
The patient was on a trip to visit relatives in southern

Illinois when she experienced pain and vaginal bleeding.
She presented to the emergency department (ED) at the local
hospital (with whom the pathology group had a

contract), and tissue samples were collected for pathology

review. At the time the samples were collected, they were
erroneously labeled by the hospital staff as “products of

conception” as the patient told the
ED physicians that she had recently given birth. The

samples were sent to Tennessee per the contract and the
pathologist interpreted the samples as being products of

conception (as opposed to cancer) based primarily upon

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