Legal Question in Health Care Law in Louisiana
Another individual has the same name, birth year as mine.My DOB is 2/4/44, his is 7/3/44. He had a RPR performed in MS. The results were a strong positive for the presence of Syphillis. These results were mistakenly recorded on my record at the health provider. I live in Tallulah, LA. As a result of the prototcol for reporting STD's, AIDS, etc., the local health department called my wife when I was not at home. The agent tried for confidentiality, but my wife is a former lab worker with 13 years experience. She found out from him that the call involved blood work with a bad result. Needless to say, my wife went ballistic. Since I have prostate cancer, and do have some recent blood work records, I went to every lab and acquired those results. Of course, there was no RPR requested or performed on me by any of my attending physicians.
Through numerous phone calls, and questioning the lab results, we determined that the test was performed at the request of a Psychiatrist who I have never seen. My wife and I both had talked to two men at the local health dept. They refused to believe that I did not have the test, and insisted that it was probably a "false positive", and insisted that I should have another test to confirm or refute the original results.
My wife and I are both furious, and humiliated by this issue. I am a Registered Pharmacist, licensed in MS and LA with 43 years of experience. My reputation is at stake because of the paper trail that is obviously in place in two states. We live in Tallulah, and one of the nurses at
the local health dept. is in our Bible study group.
Do we have legal recourse in this matter? Can you recommend an attorney who is licensed in LA and MS. We need advice badly. Thank you in advance.
Charles H. Anderson, R.Ph.
308 La Salle Street
Tallulah, LA 71282
1 Answer from Attorneys
You certainly do have a cause of action. Not only did the lab clearly act negligently by mixing up the reports, they may have violated HIPAA in reporting their results.
You don't necessarily need an attorney licensed in both MS and LA. You need one licensed in whichever state you want to sue in. You likley have a choice of venue in this case. You can always sue any defendant where the defendant is domiciled. You can also always sue for damages in any venue where injury was suffered or where damage was inflicted. So, you can sue wherever the lab is located (domiciled), or sue in your own hometown of Tallulah, because the call was made to your wife (and damage inflicted/injury suffered) in Tallulah.
You should talk to a lawyer you trust about ALL of the facts of the case, so that you can get good advice as to where you should file. But, you should file suit. That sort of reckless behavior from health care professionals should not go unpunished.
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