Source: https://www.medicalmalpracticelawyers.com/hospital-medical-malpractice-2/marylands-highest-appellate-court-applies-immunity-in-overturning-suicide-medical-malpractice-verdict/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 00:19:11+00:00

Document:
In the case the Maryland Appellate Court was deciding, a 23-year-old man attempted to commit suicide in April 2011. He was taken to the defendant hospital pursuant to an application for involuntary admission certified by two doctors at another hospital, and came under the care of the defendant psychiatrist.
In accordance with the Maryland Mental Health Law, a hearing to determine whether the man should be admitted involuntarily or released was scheduled for 10 days later. In the interim, the man was confined at the defendant hospital where he was assessed and treated by the defendant psychiatrist. Two days before the scheduled hearing, the defendant psychiatrist decided that the man did not meet the statutory criteria required for involuntary admission and authorized his release. The day after he was released, the man committed suicide by jumping in front of a train.
The man’s mother subsequently filed her Maryland medical malpractice case alleging that the defendants were negligent in releasing her son. The Maryland medical malpractice jury found in her favor and awarded $6,112 for funeral expenses and $2.3 million for noneconomic damages. The jury’s total award was later reduced to $701,112 based on the statutory limit (cap) on noneconomic damages in Maryland. CJ §3-2A-09. The defendants appealed the verdict against them, arguing that they were immune from liability pursuant to the Maryland Mental Health Law.
Thus, in accepting such an individual as a patient, the facility must also assess whether the statutory criteria are met.
Regulations adopted by the Maryland Department of Health for involuntary admission refer to the individual as being in “observation status” during the time the individual is confined in a facility involuntarily on the basis of an application before the individual is either admitted, voluntarily or involuntarily, to the inpatient facility or is released by a physician or by an ALJ from the inpatient facility without being admitted. The regulations provide that an individual confined in a facility on observation status remains in that status unless (1) admitted voluntarily to the facility; (2) released upon a finding by a physician that the individual no longer meets the criteria for involuntary admission; or (3) either admitted to or released from the facility as a result of the hearing before the ALJ. COMAR 10.21.01.07F.
The Maryland Appellate Court stated that the regulations thus contemplate that an individual confined in a facility as a result of an application for involuntary admission is considered admitted to the facility only if the individual consents (i.e., the admission becomes voluntary) or if involuntary admission is authorized by an ALJ.
The Mental Health Law provides immunity from liability for those involved in the decision whether to admit an individual to a mental health facility against his or her will. HG §10-618; Maryland Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings Article (“CJ”), §5-623. An applicant who acts “in good faith and with reasonable grounds” is immune from civil or criminal liability relating to the application. HG §10-618(a); CJ §5-623(b). Similarly, a mental health facility, as well as an agent or employee of a facility, that, in good faith and with reasonable grounds, acts in compliance with the provisions of Part III of Subtitle 6 is not civilly or criminally liable for those actions. HG §10-618(b)-(c); CJ §6-623(c)-(d).
In a 2014 decision by the Maryland Appellate Court, the Court held that applying the immunity provisions to the provider’s decision on admission – regardless of whether that decision is to admit or to release the individual – ensures that no one will be held against his or her will out of a physician’s fear of a lawsuit (the Maryland Appellate Court held in that case that the statutory immunity extended to the good faith decision to release the plaintiff’s son).
In the present case, the Maryland Appellate Court stated that the Maryland Mental Health Law does not consider an individual “admitted” as of the time the individual appears before the ALJ for the hearing. Rather, the confined individual is “proposed for involuntary admission”; involuntary admission is “sought” as opposed to already achieved; and the hearing will determine whether that individual is “to be admitted to a facility or released without being admitted.” Moreover, the ALJ is to release the individual unless the five criteria are satisfied at the time of the hearing. HG §10-632(e)(2).
Nonetheless, the Maryland Appellate Court stated “[t]o construe involuntary admission under Part III narrowly to encompass only the initial decision on an application for involuntary admission and not the period during which the individual is considered to be on “observation status” would conflict with the purpose of the immunity provision.” The purpose of the statutory immunity is to eliminate the incentive that a mental health facility or its physicians might otherwise have to err on the side of curtailing an individual’s liberty in order to protect themselves from liability. A narrow construction of the immunity statute would discourage a facility that made an initial decision that an individual be involuntarily admitted based on the statutory criteria from releasing that individual if, even a day later, it determined that those criteria were no longer met.
Source Bell v. Chance, No. 36 September Term, 2017.
If you lost a loved one due to suicide in Maryland or in another U.S. state for which intentional acts or medical negligence may have caused or contributed to the death, you should find a medical malpractice lawyer in Maryland or in your state who may investigate your suicide claim for you and represent you or your loved one’s family in a suicide malpractice case, if appropriate.
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 14th, 2018 at 5:25 am. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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