By ANGELA HOWELL
Some Utah doctors are asking patients to sign away their rights to sue for malpractice.
According to an Associated Press report, Utah Medical Insurance Association, a company that provides malpractice insurance to a large group of Utah’s physicians, “recently sent letters to 1,800 of the state’s 3,500 physicians” encouraging arbitration agreements.
Robert McDonald, a Salt Lake medical malpractice attorney, said, “… I think it’s unfair to the patient mainly because they’re signing away rights before they know what happens in the operation. I think too, although there are often cases that shouldn’t be filed, there are … malpractice cases where a person should have the benefit of a jury trial … that would be sacrificed to some extent by an arbitration agreement.”
According to the Associated Press report, the Utah Legislature created arbitration agreements in 1985 as an alternative way to solve disputes without a legal trial. “In a physician-patient arbitration agreement, a panel of three doctors — who practice in the same specialty as the physician accused of wrongdoing — rules on awards for a person’s injury or death,” McDonald said.
McDonald said a patient can always agree to arbitration after the medical services have been performed. “The problem I have with (the pre-signed arbitration agreement) is that when you go into the hospital, you don’t know what’s going to happen while you’re there …. You sign this (arbitration agreement) in advance and then later, if you have a significant and grievous injury, you’ve deprived yourself of the benefits of a jury trial,” McDonald said.
“They already have so many barriers to suing a doctor, … we don’t need … one more,” he said.
Dr. Don L. Stromquist, a Salt Lake rheumatologist, is insured through UMIA. He said, “So far, I have not offered (the form). I don’t think it’s a bad idea though.”
He said he has ambivalent feelings about having his patients pre-sign an arbitration agreement “because … for many people, arbitration might be a more efficient method of getting their problem settled. I also think people probably ought to have the right to sue if they’ve been hurt. … That seems to be a value of our legal system. So I don’t know where to come down on it.”
Stromquist said “there’s a fair chance” of offering the form to his patients in the future.
Orem resident Ruth Ann Dupaix, who is in her ninth month of pregnancy, said she would want to know her doctor’s malpractice record before pre-signing into an arbitration agreement.
“I’d probably sign it for settling out of court … as long as it’s settled. … It would bother me a little bit …,” Dupaix said. She also said if she did sign and malpractice took place, she would probably seek legal counsel.
Dupaix said, “… I don’t think (patients) should be denied care for not signing for it. I think it’s fair if they can still go to that doctor even without signing that agreement.”
Russ Behrmann, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Utah, said, “Arbitration focuses on … making a fair judgment based on recovering a loss … A lot of small claims are moving that direction.”
Behrmann said settling a dispute through arbitration has some advantages. It “saves time and money,” and it “keeps people out of court.”
Behrmann also said he would want to know whether the arbitration agreement had limits that would make the agreement void in a “huge claim.”
