Bill to Remove Doctors’ Liability in Emergency Deliveries Advances

Prompted by the increasingly high cost and frequency of medical lawsuits, the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday unanimously approved a bill aimed at protecting “good Samaritan” physicians from lawsuits arising from on-call emergency obstetrical care.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae), would broaden liability protection for doctors performing emergency deliveries for women for whom they had not provided previous prenatal care.

The measure was sent to the Senate floor on an 8-0 vote. It previously had passed the Assembly, 74-0.

Under the legislation, obstetricians who volunteer to be on call for emergency deliveries would be immune from liability when treating a woman as long as there is no evidence of gross negligence.

Must Be Volunteer

The law would not protect obstetricians who are forced to take emergency room duty because there are no volunteers.

Current law protects a doctor who is providing “emergency care at the scene of an emergency” and is acting in “good faith.” This so-called “good Samaritan” law was enacted in 1959. All physicians received additional legal protections under a 1975 overhaul of medical malpractice law.

The California Medical Assn., the prime backer of the Filante bill, maintains that “it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain competent specialists to place their name on the on-call lists for emergency service at hospitals,” particularly in obstetrical service. In the last five years, malpractice insurance premiums for obstetricians have risen 240% in California, and the cost of obstetrical service has risen about 80% in the last two years, a CMA spokesman said.

The CMA argues that since many women giving birth in hospital emergency rooms have had no prenatal care, doctors who treat them are taking on almost certain “high-risk” cases.

Since the risk of a lawsuit is so high for emergency obstetrical care, many hospitals have been unable to find physicians who will volunteer for duty and thus have been forced to use a mandatory on-call roster to provide obstetrical service in the emergency room.

‘10 Times More Dangerous’

Filante, the Assembly’s only physician, said 75% of the obstetricians in California have been sued. Compared with other emergency room cases, obstetric patients are “10 times more dangerous and . . . have 10 times more complications.” Complications arise, he said, when there has been no prenatal care and no previous doctor-patient relationship.

Dr. Alexander R. Lampone, director of the emergency department at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, agreed that the proposed legislation would benefit patients and doctors.

“As a doctor, I think (the legislation) would improve the quality of care,” Lampone said. “We ought to be able to walk into a room and do our best.” Instead, he said, doctors are put under the dual stress of a potential lawsuit and the knowledge that something may go wrong.