Representatives of the two hospitals in Will County have called on area legislators to help pass a medical malpractice reform bill.
The County Board’s Legislative Committee this week held the first of three hearings on the issue. County Board members are interested in medical malpractice because doctors are leaving Joliet, retiring or restricting practices because of skyrocketing insurance costs.
At the committee’s invitation, state Reps. Brent Hassert (R-Romeoville), Jack McGuire (D-Joliet) and Kevin McCarthy (D-Orland Park) and state Sen. Larry Walsh (D-Elwood) attended the hearing. The legislators listened to testimony from nearly a dozen people, but they did not speak to the issue.
Several reform proposals were introduced in the spring legislative session, but the General Assembly did not act upon them. This month, Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked the former chief judge of Cook County courts, Donald P. O’Connell, to mediate talks on legislative efforts to reform medical malpractice in the state.
Officials of Provena St. Joseph Medical Center and Silver Cross Hospital, which are both in Joliet, told the county committee that the insurance increases have affected neurosurgeons. Since mid-2003, the three practicing neurosurgeons have stopped treating head injuries, forcing patients to go to Chicago or Peoria, local doctors said.
Dr. Tom Hurley, a neurosurgeon who works at Silver Cross, said 19 trauma patients with head injuries were transferred to other hospitals during July and August. Paul Pawlak, the president and chief executive officer of Silver Cross, said the hospital’s deductible for a medical malpractice case is $4 million this year, up from $1 million in 2000.
Hassert, who represented the House Republicans in the medical malpractice insurance reform talks this spring, said he has never seen so much bipartisan effort to address the issue during his 12 years in the legislature.
The Legislative Committee has scheduled more hearings on the issue for Oct. 12 and 26.
