Measure born of couple's grief to become law

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, December 31, 2007

Evan Semon / The Rocky

David and Patty Skolnik hold a photograph of their son, Michael, at their Centennial home. The two were the main architects of a bill that goes into effect Tuesdayrequiring a public posting of every malpractice settlement.

If only she'd known.

The refrain kept running through Patty Skolnik's head as she mourned her son's death - a death she blames on a doctor who, unbeknownst to her, had been the subject of a malpractice claim in another state.

Skolnik couldn't let go of the pain, so, with her husband and state legislators, she helped push through House Bill 1331.

Like more than 25 other bills from the 2007 General Assembly, it becomes law Tuesday.

The Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act will make public, via a Web site, information about doctors' license status and malpractice settlements.

The information will trickle in with the new year because Colorado's 16,000 licensed doctors don't have to provide the information until they renew their licenses, and the next big round of that is in May of 2009.

But doctors new to the state have to provide the information right away.

Eventually, Colorado consumers will be able to find out whether their doctors have had any malpractice convictions.

The aim of the act is to let consumers make informed decisions on their choice of doctors, say bill co-sponsors State Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, and State Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Adams County.

If someone is scheduled for hip surgery, say, or removal of a brain aneurism, it's important to know if the surgeon has had any malpractice settlements, said Skolnik. And it isn't enough to just check in Colorado because some surgeons move out of state after malpractice judgments, hoping their past won't catch up with them, she said.

Skolnik's only son, Michael, 22, was studying to be a pediatric nurse when he blacked out one day in 2001.

She says a series of mistakes led to her son getting unnecessary surgery from an inexperienced doctor who jostled his brain.

A few months later, while the neurosurgeon was saying Michael would be fine after rehab, Craig Hospital doctors said her son was half-blind, partly paralyzed, was psychotic and had the reasoning ability of a third-grader.

There followed two years of hell, a half-dozen hospitals and $4.8 million in medical expenses.

"He couldn't walk or talk," Skolnik said of her son. "Every day, he would put his hand to his head, like pointing a gun."

On June 4, 2004, Michael mouthed the words, "I love you," to his father, David, and died.

Skolnik said if she had known that the neurosurgeon, Dr. David Wayne Miller, had a malpractice claim and settlement in Georgia, she would have sought a different physician. She discovered later he'd done the procedure only once before, she said.

Colorado doctors at first were skeptical of the bill, worrying that a frivolous malpractice lawsuit could unfairly follow a physician forever.

But the Colorado Medical Society advocated for the bill, after wording clarified that only settlements or final judgments to malpractice suits would be publicized, not the mere filing of a suit.

Upon application for, or renewal of a license, doctors must provide information on the following:

* any public disciplinary action taken by a medical board of any state or country,

* any agreement whereby the doctor temporarily ceased or restricted practice,

* any involuntary limitation on the doctor's privilege to practice at a hospital or clinic,

* any involuntary surrender of the doctor's registration with the Drug Enforcement Administration,

* any final criminal conviction or plea arrangement connected to a felony or crime of moral turpitude anywhere,

* any final judgment, settlement or arbitration award for medical malpractice.

"We see this as a consumer protection mechanism," said Chris Lines, spokesman for the state Department of Regulatory Agencies, which houses the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners.

The act includes a statement that studies show there isn't much of a correlation between malpractice history and a doctor's competence.

For now, people can look up newly licensed physicians by going to doradls. state.co.us/alison.php. In six to eight weeks, a glitch should be corrected that will make access easier, said Lines. Still, most doctors won't have their information online until sometime in 2009.

Skolnik said Miller paid an undisclosed amount of money to her family to settle the malpractice claims against him.

Miller now works as a neurosurgeon in Glenwood Springs. Colleagues there praised his work to the Grand Junction Sentinel last month. Dr James Denton, a former colleague at Medical Center of Aurora called Miller "the finest neurosurgeon I have ever worked with."

The Colorado Board of Medical Examiners reviewed the Skolnik case and found no wrongdoing.

Miller acknowledges that he has settled two malpractice claims. Miller said brain surgeries have a high risk of complications and that people die from complications all the time in the absence of mistakes.

"I did my best to help her son," he told the Sentinel. "If she doesn't think I wake up every day thinking about Michael Skolnik, she's mistaken."

Skolnik continues to believe the surgery itself was a mistake because she said it was unnecessary. She hopes the new measure will be replicated by other states.

"I'm really pleased that it became law, and I'm pleased it went through with Michael's name on it," Skolnik said.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897

New year's resolutions

About 25 bills become law New Year's Day, including a high-profile measure that bans smoking in casinos and another that requires the state to pay for cervical cancer vaccines for uninsured girls as young as 11. A sampling of the laws that will go into effect:

* HB 1301 creates the Cervical Cancer Center Immunization Program, which is meant to educate and immunize women and girls against cervical cancer. The measure requires the Children's Basic Health Plan to cover cervical cancer vaccines for uninsured middle and high school girls. About 1,506 girls are expected to receive the vaccine in 2008.

* HB 1269 extends the statewide smoking ban enacted in 2006 to the casinos in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek. The state legislature yanked the casinos' initial exemption last spring.

* HB 1355 prohibits health insurance providers from using past claims and an employee's health status when determining health insurance rates for small employers.

* SB 36 requires health insurance policies to include coverage for certain mental disorders.

* SB 203 seeks to crack down on mortgage fraud by requiring all mortgage brokers to be licensed by the state and undergo criminal history checks. Under the bill, brokers could face fines up to $2,000 for engaging in fraudulent activities, such as misleading a party in a real estate transaction; acting in the interest of more than one party without prior disclosure; mishandling and misusing money belonging to others; knowingly violating state and federal fair housing laws; failing to keep adequate records for a four-year period; engaging in deceit and fraud.

* SB 211 provides health care coverage for all low-income children by 2010, increasing the state's Medicaid costs by an estimated $164 million by then. Portions of the measure were enacted in July.