Spas have moved beyond saunas and massages; some now offer medically-based services like Botox and dermal filler injections, as well as laser hair removal. A number of spas allow unqualified technicians—not doctors—to administer these treatments. Some procedures can produce results with serious health consequences. Scarring, skin discoloration, and several deaths have been reported. Florida and New Jersey are among several states that are starting to regulate the practice. Llitigation can help make certain that spa owners are held responsible.  Trial Magazine

Columnist Jim Landers explores the notion of capping medical malpractice damages as part of  health care reform, an idea that has circulated around Washington for many years. Would capping damages make health care less expensive? The evidence doesn’t support it.   According to a study by a team at the University of Alabama, tort reform has not provided health care cost savings for consumers. Dallas Morning News (4/22)

Ambulance crews may be unknowingly exposing patients to drug-resistant bacteria through unsanitized stethoscopes. According to a new report, published in the journal Prehospital Emergency Care, emergency medical service workers failed to clean stethoscopes as often as they should, potentially spreading methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. An simple alcohol swab is usually sufficient to kill these deadly bacteria.

Eric Nagourney, The New York Times 03/16/2009
Read Article: The New York Times

Detroit Free Press: “A New York drug company paid pediatricians consulting fees and treated them to expensive meals and entertainment to get them to prescribe antidepressants to children, a class action charged.” Michigan has joined 13 other states in the suit. | Full story

A Florida law allowing doctors to opt out of medical malpractice insurance is putting patients at risk, critics of the law say. Patient advocates contend that the law leaves those harmed by doctors with few options to recover damages for their injury. According to a state physicians database one-eighth of Florida doctors do not carry malpractice insurance. Bob LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel 07/27/2008

A Nevada judge ruled Tuesday to allow patients to pursue damages for emotional distress in a class-action lawsuit against a clinic linked to a hepatitis C outbreak. District Judge Allan Earl rejected arguments that plaintiffs could not pursue emotional distress damages unless they were physically injured. The judge reasoned that the stress of potential exposure could manifest itself as physical symptoms. Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Review Journal 07/22/2008

A Nevada judge ruled Tuesday to allow patients to pursue damages for emotional distress in a class-action lawsuit against a clinic linked to a hepatitis C outbreak. District Judge Allan Earl rejected arguments that plaintiffs could not pursue emotional distress damages unless they were physically injured. The judge reasoned that the stress of potential exposure could manifest itself as physical symptoms. Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Review Journal 07/22/2008

Former talk show sidekick Ed McMahon filed a lawsuit Friday accusing the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of negligence in its handling of a neck injury McMahon sustained in a 2007 fall. According to the lawsuit, the Los Angeles hospital failed to diagnose a broken neck and subsequently provided substandard care in two spine operations. Damages sought in the lawsuit were not disclosed. Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters 07/18/2008

A New Jersey judge has dismissed the first two of more than 150 lawsuits alleging that hormone replacement therapy drugs caused cancer. Superior Court Judge Jamie Happas found that the plaintiffs did not present sufficient evidence that Wyeth Inc. failed to submit accurate medical evidence during the Food and Drug Administration approval process. The ruling casts doubt on the future of 166 remaining claims filed under the New Jersey Products Liability Act and New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. Mary Pat Gallagher, Law.com 07/15/2008