Articles related to LEGAL MATTERS

A federal court allowed a lawsuit against a hospital to proceed after a patient’s placenta was destroyed despite a signed release form. The ruling focused on contractual obligations and patient-directed handling of biological specimens.

A fatal medication error that led to criminal prosecution continues to influence discussions around patient safety, technology design, and accountability in nursing practice.

A malpractice case involving missed postoperative decline highlights failures to act on evolving infection and organ dysfunction trends following abdominal surgery.

A physician associate in an understaffed emergency department diagnosed a patient’s severe back pain as sciatica after a CT scan read as normal. Five days later, a different clinician identified a perirectal abscess that had already progressed to require multiple surgeries.

ASHP urged HRSA in a June 2 letter to take immediate enforcement action against Eli Lilly after the manufacturer gave an initial group of 340B-covered entities five business days to submit detailed claims-level data or lose access to discounted pricing across its full drug portfolio, including in-house hospital pharmacy dispensing and medically administered products; as of mid-June, the threatened cutoffs had not yet taken effect for many affected entities.

An Oregon gastroenterology group was hit with a $25M wrongful death verdict after a 43-year-old patient with obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, and hypertension died during a routine outpatient colonoscopy, with liability centered on the decision to perform the procedure in a lower-acuity setting despite a risk profile that plaintiffs argued warranted a hospital environment.