The Nation : AIDS Threat to Hospitals

AIDS is a “time bomb” for the nation’s hospitals, threatening to burden them with expensive health care and waves of costly lawsuits, a report by the American Hospital Assn. said. The report predicts two waves of lawsuits against hospitals. The first may be over employment issues, such as the dismissal of workers who develop AIDS or the rights of hospitals to screen blood of workers. The second wave may come from patients over such things as alleged hospital negligence over the failure to inform patients of positive AIDS test results or failure to protect patients from contracting AIDS in the hospital.