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Texas Medical Association
Testimony for Senate State Affairs Committee on Senate Bill 152
March 26, 2009
Presented by Bill Peper, MD
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I am Dr. Bill Peper. I am a thoracic surgeon from Waco, and I am chair of the Committee on Professional Liability for the Texas Medical Association. On behalf of TMA and our more than 44,000 physician and medical student members, I am here to testify against Senate Bill 152.
When the legislature passed liability reform in 2003, it set a “gross negligence” standard for emergency services. This standard was meant to protect patient access to these critical services. These services include not only the care emergency physicians provide but also that provided by physicians and surgeons like myself who respond at all times of the day and night to provide definitive care in an emergency.
In an emergency, rarely do the emergency physicians and surgeons like me have prior knowledge of the patient. Rarely, if ever, do we have access to the patient’s medical record. Often we are making life and death decisions based on how the patient presents and limited data, exercising our best medical judgment.
You will hear — or you have heard — from the emergency physicians about the substantial gains made in their number across the state. Eighty-two Texas counties, from rural to urban, have seen gains in emergency physicians. For the surgeons and medical specialists, this law has been beneficial in preserving our ability to respond to emergency call when our services are needed by critically ill and injured patients.
SB 152 would be detrimental to the entire continuum of emergency services and would place at risk the significant gains in patient access to emergency care that we have seen over the last five years.
Last Published: 3/26/2009 Print this page
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