News Scrapbook 1986-1988

San Diego, CA (San Diego co.) Daily Transcript (Cir. D. 7,415)

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) San Diego Magazine (Cir. M. 20,324) JAN

1987

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::.AN Ult.GU UAILY I HAN::il.,;HIF' I J , HealthCare Law Is Burgeoning VVt.Ul'tCU Llf"\ I

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.11,3.z . Two "lfos A l(eles firms - Memel, J acobs, Pierno and Gc rsh and Musick, Peeler and Garrett - both d«:'vote significant amount of their business to he, Ith care law. In Sa n Di ego J e nnin gs, Engstrand and Henrikson also docs a fair amounl. But it's another Los Angeles firm - Weissburg and Aronson - which has developed their o'A n

writing," explai ned Blacker. "I'm really buggy about short, simple sentences. You lead the reader by the hand." The articles are all done in house - such titles as "Recent Develop· ments in Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurance" and "Financ- ing of Patient Charges by Health Care Providers." "I'm constantly working on it," said Blacker. • • • On The Rise: Jay Davis, a graduate of .!!SD Law School, has been elected a partner of Mac- donald, Halsted & Laybourne. He joined the firm afler serving as senior vice president, secretary and general counsel for Mitsui Manu- facturers Bank since 1977 . • * News Media Watch: Justice Edward Butler of the Fourth Dis• t rict Court of Appeal will be Pam Plotkin's guest on Channel 5l 's "At the Bar" program this Satur- day at 2:30 p.m. • * • Mulvaney and Kahan will be moving into larger offices in the First ational Bank Buildin . * * • The f ederal Court Committee and the U.S. Attorney's office are co-sponsoring a brown bag lun- cheon at the county law liorary on the new federal drug Jaws. It'll be Friday at noon in the reading room. -+: * * If you want to send or receive a copy of a document the county law library can now do it by phone. Documents can be sent anywhere in the world to anyone who has a telefacsimile machine. •

within the hospital?

In California, according t.o Root, if a hospital denies or takes away a doctor's medical staff privileges "you have lo give them the right to a hearing." At an admin istrative-like hear- ing the hospital presents its case to a three to fiv(;•member tribunal compo,;ed of physicians not involv- ed in the particular case. The doc-

LawBriefs by Martin Kruming

tor can be represented by counsel. If the finding goes against the doctor it can be appealed to the hospital's board of directors. The next remedy is a lawsuit. "The re is a rather low percent- age (of suits);" said Root. "It's an emba rrassing kind of lawsuit. This is a personal service kind of busi- ness and there's all t he notoriety that comes out of a suit." Besi d es , a docto r ma y be associated with more than one hospital so he may only lose his privilege to practice at that facili- t). Another way an attorney may get involved wi th the medical staff initially is t he writing of the bylaws which regulates this "self- governi ng entity." . Overseeing all of this, of course, is the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance, which handles licensing and discipline, much li ke the State Bar. After graduati ng from Syracuse University, Root served in the Navy for six years, including a stint as a discipline officer at 32nd Street Naval Station here. During that time he went t~w School. · He was in-house counsel for the Vista Hill Foundation for two years and m 1978 joined Jennings, Engrstrand, which at the time was the only San 1 Diego firm - along with Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye - doing health care related law, ac- cording to Root. He joined Weissburg and Aronson in No- vember 1985. Last July the firm produced its first monthly Health Care Law Newsletter for Matthew Bender, which goes to about 400 ad- ministrators, CEOs, attorneys and health professionals and consul- tants around the country. Blacker, who has an undergrad- uate degree in chemical engineer• ing from Cornell and a masters in nuclear engineering, is the editor of the newsletter. "I have developed a style, inter- est and philosophy in expository

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form d 11 yea rs 0l(0. " About 95 perce nt of our work is for health care cl1enls," said Richard Blacker, a UCLA Law School grnduale who~;i; the firm 's business depm t111ent. In October 1985 the 75-altorney fi rm opened up a San Diego office which now has six lawyers. Clients incl ude the Palomar- Pomera do Hos pital Distr ict, Scripps Mem · osp1tal, Tri- Ct y ospital, Mercy and Gross- mont hospitals, as well as all the P"Ychmtri c hospita ls in an Diego except Harbor View and Paradise Valley. .____ --neom:;---ca rP law is rapidly becoming one of the more complex areas of the law today and poses some of t he more intriguing issues. For i n sta nee, alternative delive ry systems, malpractice, reimbursement, termination of life support systems, discrimination agai nst AIDS victims and hospital contracti ng. "It is an area that you really do have lo specialize in lo feel comfor- table in all these areas," says George Root, Jr., a Weissburg and Aronson partner here who did a great deal of health care law dur- ing his seven years with Jenni ngs, Engstrand. But the term health care law can be misleading. Hospitals are also businesses so there are contracts, labor negotia tions, real estate acquisitions, mergers, taxes and even joint ven- turing between doctors and hospitals. "There's the opportunity to deal with the CEOs and the nurses," says Root, whose wife, Sharon, is a trauma nurse at UCSD Medical Center. "My sounding board" as he calls her. Root noted that hospitals are one of the " heaviest regulated" with a medical staff that is a "self gov- ern ing entity" generating a vari- ety of issues. For instance, what about a com- plaint agai nst a doctor generated

SAN DIEGANS TO WATCH INV o

Tomorrow 1 s most \ikely newsmakers

The cost in the U.S. is $9 for 1-5 pages ($1 for each additional page) and the charge for receiving docu- ments is $2.50 for 1-5 pages (50 cents for each additional page). For more information call 236- 2292.

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* * • San Diego County Bar Association Meetings, Jan. 1-7

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SrffLDON KRANTZ With a vision beyond that of many academics. Sheldon Krantz. dean of the USD Law School. hasbeena driv- ing torce in establishing community legal programs that become models for the nati on. In 1987, he'll be working with the San Diego Law Center on the amnesty provision in the new immi- gration law. altemauve dis- pute resolution programs and a new county agency that will provide total services for indigent defendants in crim- inal cases. Last year he hosted top justice officials from China; this June he 'II

lead a delegation of Amer- ican juvenile-justice experts to China. He's also chairing an American Bar Associati~n commi ttee that will look into national prison and jail prob- lems including overcrowding, electronic devices to im- prison inmates at home and the national shift toward harsher sentences that elimi- nate the opportunity for pa- role . He 's currently hard at work on an ambitious Studs Terkel-like book that he's calling The Future of che Legal Professio11. Oxford Press has contracted to publish it.

Tuesday, Jan. 6 Bridging The Gap Series - 5:30 p.m., Rm. 2-B, Cal Western. Legislation Committee (Sub- committee) - 5:30 p.m., Con• ference Rm., 19th Floor, 530 B. St. Wednesday,Jan. 7 Probate, Trust & Estate Plann- ing Subcommittee . for Legisla- · tion - 5 p.m., 17th Floor, 401 B. St. The Law Week Committee - n_oo~, Conference Room, Barz;Asso- c1at1on. _ . I -----

(San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D. 127,454)

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~~987 Thompson a titan in Toreros' romp over Colorado By Kirk Kenney /Ja rL° Tribune Sportswriterpv':J':'/ Scott Thompson couldn't explain it. Colorado couldn't stop it. against smaller competition the past few games. "I couldn't tell you why." Colorado coach Tom Miller knew one reason why Thompson was successful against the Buffa- loes. But he couldn't do anything about it.

key situations." Said Miller: "I think they're a very fine team. But when you make 13 turnovers to three . . .." One player who was able to hold onto the ball for the Buffaloes was Bullard, who was also able to shoot it. He scored 10 of the team's 14 first-half points. Bullard was even more impressive in the sec- ond half with 20 points - including two three- pointers - for a game-high 30. The trouble was he had little support. Thompson effectively shut down Wilke, who fouled out with seven minutes remaining with no points, one rebound and six turnovers to show for his 23 minutes on the floor. "I thought he would play more physical myself," Thompson said. "I saw him play on ESPN a couple times and he was pretty physical. He got in foul trouble and I think that prevented him from being more physical." While Bullard carried the load for Colorado, Thompson was assisted in the scoring column with nine points each from starting guards Danny Means and Paul Leonard and eight points apiece from starting forwards Mark Manor and Nils Madden. The Toreros came out in the second half with seven straight points for their biggest lead of the game at 37-14 with 16:23 remaining. USO still had a 20-point lead at 46-26 when Bullard hit a 12-foot jumper with 8:40 remaining.

And the JJ~s couldn't help but defeat the Colorado Buffaloes 61-51 last night before a crowd o~575 at the USO Sports Center. Some of Thompson's finest performances throughout his four-year career at USO have been against tall teams. Colorado qualified in that de- partment last night with 6-foot-9 center Scott Wilke and 6-10 forward Matt Bullard listed amonr the starting five. So what did Thompson do? He played perhaps his finest game since scoring a career-high 31 points in the Toreros' season-opening win at Utah. The 7-foot USD center was unstoppable during one seven-minute stretch in the first half, scoring 12 straight pomts for the Toreros and grabbing four defensive rebounds. The effort enabled USO (8-3) to turn an 8-5 deficit into a 17-10 advantage with 7:20 remaining in the half against Colorado (3-5). USO never looked back as Thompson finished with a team-high 23 points, a game-high 11 re- bounds and dished out a game-high six assists. Included in those figures was a 7-for-7 perform- ance at the free-throw line, giving Thompson 32 straight over the past five games. "I like playing against bigger guys," said Thompson, whose numbers have been down

"They're a very patient team and they get the ball into the big guy well," Miller said. "He's prob- ably the best post player we've played against." USO coach Hank Egan provided another per- spective. "I think Scott plays better the tougher the oppo- nent," Egan said. "I don't care about their size. nd he plays better in big games. That's one of his assets. He really played well tonight." Thompson is hoping for a repeat performance when the Toren>S play their final pre-conference game tomorrow night at 7:30 against Division III Ohio Northern (7-5) at the Sports Center. Egan would like to see another fine defensive performance. USD's first-half defensive play also contributed to last night's win, enabling the Toreros to take a 30-14 halftime lead. It wasn't so much USO limiting Colorado's shooting percentage - the Buffaloes hit 41.7 per· cent to the Toreros' 36.7 - as their shooting. Colo- rado attempted just 12 shots in the first half. Twelve. USO tried 30. In addition, the Toreros forced 13 turnovers while committing three. "I thought we played very well defensively,'' Egan said. "I told the team after the game that I thought we won it with defense and rebounding in