guest post by Mike Pringle

The Boston Globe today (December 11, 2007) reported out on a precedent setting legal battle that the Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled is likely to broaden the liability challenges that physicians already face.

A 10-year-old boy standing on a sidewalk with his friend was struck and killed by a moving vehicle when the driver passed out on March 22nd 2002. The court ruled that the mother of the boy can sue the physician who prescribed a number of medications to the driver that could cause drowsiness as a side effect.

Justice Roderick L. Ireland who presided over the case equated…”that the actions of a doctor who fails to warn a patient about a drug’s side effect that could endanger others to a bartender who serves an intoxicated customer”.

The ramifications, both potential and real, of this type of ruling are far reaching. Certainly responsibility needs to rest with someone for this and similar type tragedies, however I think pointing the smoking gun at healthcare providers is not the way to adjudicate this type of event. My bias is simply this, if you are impaired from alcohol, lack of sleep, or medications and driving a vehicle it should be considered a “DUI”. Massachusetts is likely opening Pandora’s Box on this one.

What do you think?