Opinion

O'Guinn v. Little River Memorial Hospital

  • 430 S.W.3d 150
  • 2013 Ark. App. 593
  • 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 610
  • 2013 WL 5740987
Court
Court of Appeals of Arkansas
Filed
Oct 23, 2013
Status
Published
Author
Whiteaker
On the bench
Rita W. Gruber
Cited by
1 cases
Authority
More cited than 4.7%

The opinion

PHILLIP T. WHITEAKER, Judge, concurring.

I agree with the majority that Ms. O’Guinn is entitled to a change-of-physician order under these circumstances based on our previous interpretation of section 11-9-514 in Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. v. Keys, 2012 Ark. App. 559 , 423 S.W.3d 683 . I write separately solely to express my belief that the legislature should consider revising the statute to clearly address the circumstances under which a claimant who, through no fault of her own, is left without a physician after having previously invoked her statutory entitlement to a one-time change of physician. I note that the change-of-physician statute as currently written does not specifically address the situation in which a physician dies during the treatment of a patient; nor does it clearly address the possibility that a physician may retire, move, or have his or her privileges or license to practice medicine revoked or suspended during the physician’s treatment of the claimant. I believe that the determination of these issues is better left to legislative enactment, than judicial interpretation.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.