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Article: Know your Pitocin policy, lawyer advises.(Obstetrics)
- Article from:
- OB GYN News
- Article date:
- June 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 International Medical News Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LAS VEGAS -- From a legal standpoint, your hospital guidelines for the preparation and administration of Pitocin are a double-edged sword in the case of a bad birth outcome, Stephen Crandall advised at a conference on fetal monitoring sponsored by Symposia Medicus.
"If you have a policy in place, you better have meant it," said Mr. Crandall, a Mayfield Heights, Ohio-based plaintiff's attorney who specializes in health care law.
During court depositions in trials involving a bad birth outcome, he said, nurses frequently describe their hospital's Pitocin (oxytocin) policy as "just a guideline," Mr. Crandall said. "We hear that all the time." If a Pitocin ...