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Attorney Chris Dolan Helps Improve Patient Care Through Proposed EMR Law

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Best Injury Lawyer Chris Dolan, Best Personal Injury Attorney Chris Dolan
San Francisco attorney Chris Dolan, past President of The Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) and owner of The Dolan Law Firm, is a tireless advocate for patient safety. His work, as part of CAOC, to make California medical clinics and hospitals safer for patients is the driving force behind California Senate Bill 850, Sponsored by CAOC and authored by Bay Area Senator Mark Leno, which would improve and preserve patients’ electronic medical records (EMRs) in California.

California SB 850 passed the Assembly Health Committee on June 22, 2011, the Assembly Judiciary on June 28, 2011. It is now headed to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations with no opposition and the support of both Democrats and Republicans. If passed, the legislation will require any change or deletion of any EMR to be recorded and preserved. Further, the records of the changes or deletions must include the identity of the person who accessed and changed the EMR as well as the date and time the EMR was accessed.These requirements would enhance patient safety by ensuring that, as shift changes and patient transfers occur, patients’ complete medical records are available. SB 850 will prevent against inadvertent deletions as well as deliberate alterations of any EMR. This would make it possible for patients, their families, and as a last resort, their lawyers to determine if changes or deletions were made to EMRs. Such information can prove essential to patients or their families to settle often-unanswered questions when a preventable medical error has occurred.

The legislation is inspired by the work of Mr. Dolan with the family of a woman who lost her life after experiencing a complication after knee surgery. Diane Stewart, grandmother of 10, told her family of intense abdominal pain after having knee surgery at the Stanford University Medical Center. Even though her family informed nurses of the excruciating pain, and despite their requests to have a doctor see her, no doctors examined Ms. Stewart. A doctor only prescribed pain medication via telephone.

Soon Ms. Stewart was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit where she went into shock and died. Her death was caused by a bowel obstruction, a routine yet deadly if untreated complication of surgery.

Investigators from the California Department of Public Health found that parts of Ms. Stewart’s EMRs had been deleted after the incident. They also found that a nurse was told to make entries describing her care after Ms. Stewart passed away. With Mr. Dolan as their lawyer, the Stewart family filed a lawsuit against the hospital alleging that hospital employees tried to cover up errors in treatment by deleting files that could have revealed negligence on their parts.

A statement from the hospital said the deleted entries were “rough contemporaneous notes” that were never intended to be permanent parts of Ms. Stewart’s records. In addition, Ms. Stewart got appropriate care, and unfortunately, not every condition can be successfully treated, the hospital asserted.

According to Mr. Dolan, this law is necessitated by the shift to electronic medical records. Paper records left a trace. The delete button does not, and will not, unless SB 850 is passed. Patients rely on their health-care providers to be honest and to accurately record what has occurred. Most patients have never seen their medical records. They can by requesting them but most do not because they trust their doctors.

“We review our credit history but not our medical history. So no one knows, until after a tragedy, what is being recorded, omitted or deleted,” Mr. Dolan said. In regard to the loss of Ms. Stewart, he further stated, “This avoidable tragedy was compounded by the hospital’s deletion of Ms. Stewart’s medical history . . . the history of the negligence that led to her death. There shouldn’t have to be a law to promote integrity in the medical profession.”

If SB 850 becomes law, records of changes or deletions to EMRs will help hospitals, investigators, patients and their families, judges, and juries determine whether a patient received appropriate medical care before an adverse event occurred. This legislation represents a significant step toward making health care information and EMRs more accessible to patients and their representatives as well as a significant step toward improving patient care throughout the Golden State.

The Stewarts’ compelling story and the journey to enact SB 850 can be seen in this video featuring Mr. Dolan and Stewart family members.

Mr. Dolan and the attorneys of The Dolan Law Firm represent patients and their families in medical malpractice and other negligence lawsuits throughout the Bay Area. He has over 15 years of experience as a highly regarded advocate in medical malpractice, personal injury and other negligence cases. To contact Chris Dolan or any of the attorneys at The Dolan Law Firm, call 888-452-4752.

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Substantial investigative, financial and technological resources that no individual attorney or small law firm can provide.

Individual, attentive legal representation by highly experienced crash and accident attorneys with an outstanding record of success;
Substantial investigative, financial and technological resources that no individual attorney or small law firm can provide.

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