A plaintiff's attorney withdrew his request for a restraining order against Cleveland-based University Hospitals after the health system reportedly agreed to comply with a set of guidelines for interacting with patients who sued UH after an incident at the University Hospitals Fertility Center earlier this month left their eggs and embryos no longer viable, according to cleveland.com.
Attorney Eric Zagrans filed the motion last week accusing UH of reportedly offering affected patients complimentary in vitro fertilization treatments in exchange for out-of-court settlements, according to the report. However, a spokesperson for UH told cleveland.com the system did not offer out-of-court settlements to any patients not represented by a lawyer.
Under the new guidelines, which were reportedly signed by both parties earlier this week, UH will not engage in settlement discussions with patients, will release the plaintiffs' medical records with signed authorization and will cease all efforts to contact the patients to discuss the lawsuits. UH physicians or employees will also not be permitted to contact or respond to patients affected by the incident, the report states.
The resolution will remain in effect until the 13 lawsuits filed against UH have been consolidated under a single judge, who is expected to be chosen next week, cleveland.com reports.
In a statement to Becker's Hospital Review March 20, UH said: "The temporary restraining order entered last week was based on those inaccurate characterizations and without giving UH the opportunity to put the correct facts before the court. A new order is now in place and the court has ordered plaintiff's motion to be removed from the court docket. ... That means UH will continue to communicate with our patients.
"We are offering our patients who had stored eggs or embryos with us an in vitro package tailored to their individual clinical needs. We also will refund storage fees and will waive storage fees in the future for seven years. We have not and will not request or require our patients to sign a release to obtain these services. The attorney's claim that UH has refused to release medical records is also untrue. Our patients are our first priority, and we will continue to provide them with clinical support and assistance. To date, the five nurses staffing our patient information line have responded to more than 900 patient calls, and our physicians have personally talked with or seen approximately 400 patients about their medical needs."
To access the cleveland.com report, click here.