Seconds spent interpreting CT scans results in $2M settlement to widow
A Dallas-based hospital group must pay out a $2 million settlement after documents showed one of its radiologists spent only seconds looking at CT scans.
Leonard Burstein was transported to West Boca Medical Center—part of Palm Springs, Florida-based Tenet Healthcare—after a fall caused bleeding from his head. Doctors there ordered a CT scan, and images were sent to radiologist Steven Fuhr. The lawsuit, filed by lawyers in April 2017, alleged Fuhr spent mere seconds reviewing these scans, missing bleeding in the brain that resulted in Burstein’s eventual death.
“That entire process for 691 images took a total of six minutes and 26 seconds,” Todd Falzone, a partner with the law firm Kelley Uustal said to the Daily Business Review. “If we were to assume that he did nothing but open them up and immediately start reading them, he spent half a second looking at each image. That’s two images per second, and that is insanity.”
A subpoena handed to the head of radiology forced Fuhr to print out a record of each keystroke he made on his computer the day he reviewed Burstein’s images. That was key to the settlement between Burstein’s widow Georgia Burstein and Tenet, Fuhr and his employer Sheridan Radiology Services of South Florida.
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Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.