Fact #9: Did you know medical malpractice claims have little effect on hospitals’ bottom line?

  •      Hospitals have been prospering financially and enjoying record profits, without caps
         having had any impact.
  •      Analysis of verdict data showed that noneconomic damages awards against hospitals
         declined from 2002-2003.
  •      Hospitals have said that insurance and investment markets – not tort claims – are the
         reason for any financial difficulties they may have faced in the past.
  •      Hospitals are the subject of news stories - and not because of a medical malpractice
         crisis. In fact, hospitals are making news because of the millions of dollars they are
         spending, makes it hard to believe that these hospitals are cash strapped.

      o Loyola University Health System is spending nearly $50 million to open a center
          in a southwest suburb next year that will offer everything from heart care to
          aquatic therapy (Crain’s Chicago Business, February 22, 2010).
      o Northwestern recently opened a luxurious $507 million women’s hospital
         featuring “spectacular lake views and 42-inch flat-screen televisions loaded with
         movies to order” (Crain’s Chicago Business, October 8, 2007).
      o The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago recently announced it purchased the
          property upon which it will be building a new hospital, costing several hundred
          million dollars (Chicago Tribune, December 15, 2009).