Physician Expert Witness Evaluates Premature Hospital Discharge

Case Overview

This case takes place in Illinois and involves complications suffered by an infant shortly after birth. The child was born, and underwent a blood test to screen for various disorders. However, the testing was not received by the state lab until several days later. The defending family medicine doctor delivered and discharged the infant from the hospital. However, the records indicate that the infant was experiencing symptoms which may indicate a premature discharge from the hospital. Eventually, the infant was brought back to the hospital on in shock. He was transferred to another facility where a blood test revealed a serious imbalance in his blood chemistry. It was soon discovered the child suffered from a rare genetic disease that could have been revealed from the blood screening. The baby now suffers from permanent brain damage.

Questions to the Internal Medicine expert and their responses

Do you routinely treat patients similar to the one described in the case? Please explain.

I did hospital based newborn medicine, including screening for, evaluating and managing babies with genetic disorders.

Have you ever had a patient develop the outcome described in the case? What could have been potentially done to avoid the outcome for this patient?

Batching is a common practice, but I do not know about this particular test.

Have you ever served as an expert witness on a case similar to the one described above? If so, please explain.

I have never served as an expert witness in a similar case.

Please tell us why you?re qualified to serve as an expert reviewer of this case.

I am very familiar with the issues related to setting clinical and hospital policies. However, I would think that you may want to recruit a neonatologist or a pediatric geneticist who is familiar with setting hospital policies, rather than a family physician who deals with neonatal screening issues frequently but with actual genetic diseases only occasionally.

About the expert

This expert is a board certified family medicine practitioner with over 28 years of clinical experience. He received a M.D. from the University of Missouri. Active in medical student education, clinical research and clinical practice, this expert has received numerous awards for his work. A member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, he currently serves as the executive medical director at a private practice as well as the founding chairman of the department of family medicine at a top medical university.

E-006777

Specialties:

Internal Medicine