healthy4u: censorship

Who Would Have Thought, Comrades, That The Most Severe Form of Attempted Internet Censorship Could Originate in a Community Hospital, Abington Memorial, That Alleges Itself A Non-Profit Public Servant?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I would not have thought such an attempt at abridgement of fundamental American rights could originate in a local hospital, until this Motion by the defense in the EHR-related lawsuit initiated by my deceased mother in which I am now substitute plaintiff proved otherwise: <table border="1" cellspacing="0" class="ChamaeleonGrid" rules="all"><tbody><tr class="AlternatingGridItem"><td>75</td><td>E</td><td>4/19/2013</td><td>Motion</td><td>BY ABINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL MOTION TO PROHIBIT COMMENTARY ABOUT THIS LITIGATION TO ANY PUBLIC CONTEXT WITH MEMORANDUM OF LAW WITH SERVICE ON 04/19/2013</td><td>No</td><td>9267260</td></tr></tbody></table> The hospital was attempting to have the Court issue a Motion for Prior Restraint (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_restraint">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_restraint</a>), including against my writings here in the Healthcare Renewal blog, in a civil matter. In my view this attempt sets a very deleterious precedent for others opposed to hospital practices.  A topic frequently discussed at this blog is <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/imperial%20CEO">imperial management</a>.  Hospital management seems to have now become so arrogant that it apparently believes itself to have supra-Constitutional reach.  This bodes poorly for both patients' and clinicians' rights. How many other hospitals might try this, and not just against parties to litigation, hoping to get a favorable ruling? <blockquote class="tr_bq">Prior restraint (also referred to as prior censorship or pre-publication censorship) is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship" title="Censorship">censorship</a> imposed, usually by a government, on expression before the expression actually takes place. Prior restraint is often considered a particularly oppressive form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship" title="Censorship">censorship</a> in Anglo-American jurisprudence because it prevents the restricted material from being heard or distributed at all.  Prior restraint ... takes an idea or material completely out of the marketplace. Thus it is often considered to be the most extreme form of censorship. ... most of the early struggles for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press" title="Freedom of the press">freedom of the press</a> were against forms of prior restraint. Thus prior restraint came to be looked upon with a particular horror, and Anglo-American courts became particularly unwilling to approve it, when they might approve other forms of press restriction.</blockquote> Excerpts of plaintiff attorney's legal response are below (full PDF of this civil document is available at <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Abington_Memorial_Hospital_PL%20response%20to%20DF%20motion%20for%20prior%20restraint.PDF">http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Abington_Memorial_Hospital_PL%20response%20to%20DF%20motion%20for%20prior%20restraint.PDF</a>).  The response was, in fact, largely right out of the U.S. Constitution.   It is stunning that a community hospital, allegedly a servant of the public, would pull the legal stunts described which seem more akin to the methods of the former Soviet Union: <blockquote class="tr_bq">... as the entirety of the blog describes, Dr. Silverstein was troubled with, and expressed his opinion that, the defendant’s counsel’s repeatedly advancing an argument [that the same attorney had made three years prior regarding a medical malpractice case in the very same hospital - ed.] that was soundly rejected by another court [related to Certificates of Merit that delayed proceedings in my mother's case for almost two years - ed.], and the defendant’s failure to reference that case in any substantive way as opposing authority, was, in his protected opinion, malicious and unethical. As above, Dr. Silverstein’s comments on the matter are, as defendant agrees, his beliefs, opinions and viewpoints, all of which are protected speech under the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions; that defendant’s counsel is dissatisfied with protected speech is not a matter for this court to address. </blockquote> I would expect the defendant's counsel was following the instructions of, or at least was in collaboration with, hospital counsel, hospital senior management and the healthcare system Board of Directors. <blockquote class="tr_bq">... Unhappy that their improper tactics are now being exposed through Dr. Silverstein’s opinions in his blog, defense counsel initially threatened litigation. Now they ask this court to enjoin Dr. Silverstein, via prior restraint, from expressing his views. This extraordinary request comes in spite of the defendant offering nothing but pure speculation as the foundation upon which they ask this Court to strip the plaintiff of his First Amendment rights. ... Their request to strip plaintiff of his First Amendment rights is at odds with the Constitution, the caselaw, and the realities of the jury selection process, which has multiple safeguards in place to remove anyone who may have read and been influenced by Dr. Silverstein’s writings. Importantly, because of the defendant’s procedural tactics, this case, while over two years old, has only just begun discovery and the jury section process is nowhere in the near future. ... The simple fact is that Dr. Silverstein’s blog contains what defendant recognizes are his “beliefs, opinions and viewpoints” and, as such, they are protected. Neither defendant nor its counsel can meet the strict requirements of their unprecedented request to strip Dr. Silverstein of his constitutional rights. Their Motion must be swiftly denied. Dated: 28 May 2013 </blockquote> The court, a civil Court of Common Pleas in this county in Pennsylvania, in fact did promptly make a decision: hospital motion for censorship denied. <table border="1" cellspacing="0" class="ChamaeleonGrid" rules="all"><tbody><tr class="GridItem"><td>182</td><td> </td><td>6/24/2013</td><td>Order</td><td>OF 6/20/13 DANIELE,J MOTION IS DENIED; CC</td><td>No</td><td>9343590</td></tr></tbody></table> The First Amendment lives, at least in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. However,  as the stories aggregated on this blog and others increasingly show, hospitals' mission of public service increasingly seems to be dying. Attempted use of courts to abridge First Amendment rights by a hospital seems like the pinnacle of abandonment of pretenses of public service and accountability.  Corporate interests come first, not patients.  This is a reason I increasingly am of the belief that hospital management cannot be trusted.  Accordingly, in my opinion, patients - especially acute inpatients - should have 24x7, independent advocates following every aspect of their care, receiving a daily full printout of any electronic records generated, and (if legal) even using one of the many new, small video/audio recording devices in encounters with hospital personnel. "He said/she said" is no longer an option when dealing with a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SYCCY7TIXo">Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик</a> mentality. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SYCCY7TIXo" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mtGnSvjYyo3OqdPT_W46MELuxp57tvQkBFlGY_tams3EFLQs4-uFZalRs3_V0nEKo7ITz59c_97mvjLCTMN0J60tz13RXxh_aWDUL2zzCMpRVH6chjTb9xLJ2NKOYw9LffH2i3PgbK_i/s200/ussr.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click for Patriotic music!</td></tr></tbody></table> Perhaps Abington Memorial Hospital should consider adopting the rousing music above for their HR morale-building exercises. I was a Medical Resident there in 1985-87.  Like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky">Lev Davidovich Bronshtein</a>, I guess I've been excommunicated for failure of obedience to the Party line. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfMhTPM8UO5Oqbng56M8WS9uOdfP0hfryV9_f6QtOjHPRr0Dlo2Z2P1Dw05u09kyJmXNUl4a8ZXYBdRuWbG7A0p7jR_uD5O7_qVH45g2q0GRFZrA5XxPewq-wzPCllo7DLlUtr2fE5bfII/s1600/amh_id1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfMhTPM8UO5Oqbng56M8WS9uOdfP0hfryV9_f6QtOjHPRr0Dlo2Z2P1Dw05u09kyJmXNUl4a8ZXYBdRuWbG7A0p7jR_uD5O7_qVH45g2q0GRFZrA5XxPewq-wzPCllo7DLlUtr2fE5bfII/s200/amh_id1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My old residency ID.  I've now been excommuncated.</td></tr></tbody></table> Da Svedanya for now, Comrades! -- SS

Who Would Have Thought, Comrades, That The Most Severe Form of Attempted Internet Censorship Could Originate in a Community Hospital, Abington Memorial, That Alleges Itself A Non-Profit Public Servant?

I would not have thought such an attempt at abridgement of fundamental American rights could originate in a local hospital, until this Motio...

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SILVERSTEIN v. ABINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: MOTION TO PROHIBIT COMMENTARY ABOUT THIS LITIGATION TO ANY PUBLIC CONTEXT: Do computers have more rights than patients?

Herein is an issue of potential <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship">Internet censorship</a> and/or attempted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_restraint">prior restraint</a> of the rights of a citizen to express him/herself freely: At my post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/04/hospital-defense-maliciousness-aided.html">Hospital defense maliciousness, aided and abetted by attorneys who ignore the ABA and Pennsylvania's Ethical Rules of Conduct Regarding "Candor Towards the Tribunal</a>" I wrote about how a defense attorney in a case I unfortunately am substitute plaintiff in, that involving EHRs and the injury and the death of my mother, violated the requirement under the Code of Conduct of lawyers to exhibit candor before the tribunal, and perhaps 18 Pa.C.S. §4904 relating to unsworn falsification to authorities as well. As also mentioned, the lawfirm was displeased, but did not respond to my offer to consider amending any factually erroneous assertions at that post. Now here is their response: <table border="1" cellspacing="0" class="ChamaeleonGrid" rules="all"><tbody><tr class="AlternatingGridItem"><td>4/19/2013</td><td>Motion</td><td>BY ABINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL MOTION TO PROHIBIT COMMENTARY ABOUT THIS LITIGATION TO ANY PUBLIC CONTEXT WITH MEMORANDUM OF LAW WITH SERVICE ON 04/19/2013</td></tr></tbody></table> The Motion text is <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Silverstein%20-%20Def%27s%20Motion%20to%20Prohibit%20Commentary%20about%20this%20Litigation%20%2800262678%29.pdf">here</a> in PDF (it is a public document available to anyone on the Montgomery County, PA Prothonotary website). The court has yet to rule on this new motion and Substitute Plaintiff's (me) replies. I will, of course, abide by the Court's decision. First: I note that I have been writing about issues of court process, not the substance of the case's actual issues.   I think citizens have a right to know about process in their courtrooms.  I am also Joe Public, exercising my rights to freedom of expression; I am not an attorney breaking some rule of case publicity.  I am not even the suit's initiator.  What rule(s) am I breaking, exactly, I'd like to know from the Defense. Further, in my opinion, considering that multiple authorities including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/11/iom-report-on-health-it-safety-nix-fda.html">link</a>), FDA (<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/smoking-gun-internal-fda-memorandum-of.html">link</a>), Joint Commission (<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/12/joint-commission-sentinel-events-alert.html">link</a>), ECRI Institute (<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/peering-underneath-icebergs-water-level.html">link</a>), National Institute of Standards and Technology (<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/10/nist-on-ehr-mission-hostile-user.html">link</a>), AHRQ-Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality at HHS itself (<a href="http://healthit.ahrq.gov/HealthITHazardManagerFinalReport">link</a>) and others have written about risks of health IT to patients and the need for far more study and data on the issue, in my view there is a compelling public interest in being informed about the progress of this lawsuit. We have not reached the day yet, I hope, when computers have more rights than patients. I note that if the involved lawfirm, Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman Goggin, would stick to the Rules of Conduct for attorneys, it would seem they have nothing to fear. I note the remarkable statement about "unjustified and malicious personal attacks against Moving Defendant and defense counsel", i.e., pointing out exactly what they did.  Namely, fail to provide the required Candor towards the Tribunal regarding the undisclosed 2008 Stroud v. AMH decision on COM's, known to them (same hospital, same counsel) at the time multiple, frivolous contrary claims about COM's to harm my mother's case were made to the courts from 2010 to just recently in 2013.  In fact, that statement itself may be an example of legal misconduct - rendering false charges and certifying them in writing to a court as true.  I note that I didn't write the <a href="http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/204/chapter81/s81.4.html">Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys</a>; attorneys did, including Rule 3.3: "Candor before the Tribunal" whose obvious violation and my pointing it out is certainly not an "unjustified and malicious personal attack." As far as "fair trials" go - their stated concern in this latest filing - the defense should have thought about that before breaking the aforementioned Rule of Professional Conduct, causing numerous delays.  (I wonder how many med mal cases with proper paperwork are stalled more than 2 years before Discovery even begins - the case was filed 7/16/2010.) It seems to me that my mother deserved to be alive at the time of her fair trial ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_delayed_is_justice_denied">Justice delayed is justice denied</a>.")  I would certainly like to know if the Defense thinks otherwise. -- SS Apr. 19, 2013 Addendum: As noted at Wikipedia regarding what appears to be a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_restraint">Motion for Prior Restraint</a>: <blockquote class="tr_bq">Prior restraint is often considered a particularly oppressive form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship" title="Censorship">censorship</a> in Anglo-American jurisprudence because it prevents the restricted material from being heard or distributed at all. Other forms of restrictions on expression (such as actions for <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel" title="Libel">libel</a> or <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slander_and_libel#Criminal_libel" title="Slander and libel">criminal libel</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slander" title="Slander">slander</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation" title="Defamation">defamation</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt_of_court" title="Contempt of court">contempt of court</a>) implement criminal or civil sanctions only after the offending material has been published. While such sanctions might lead to a <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect_%28term%29" title="Chilling effect (term)">chilling effect</a>, legal commentators argue that at least such actions do not directly impoverish the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketplace_of_ideas" title="Marketplace of ideas">marketplace of ideas</a>. Prior restraint, on the other hand, takes an idea or material completely out of the marketplace. Thus it is often considered to be the most extreme form of censorship. The <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court" title="United States Supreme Court">United States Supreme Court</a> expressed this view in <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_Press_Assn._v._Stuart" title="Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart">Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart</a> by noting:</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><blockquote class="templatequote"><div class="Bug6200">The thread running through all these cases is that prior restraints on speech and publication are the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights. A criminal penalty or a judgment in a defamation case is subject to the whole panoply of protections afforded by deferring the impact of the judgment until all avenues of appellate review have been exhausted. Only after judgment has become final, correct or otherwise, does the law's sanction become fully operative.</div></blockquote><blockquote class="templatequote"><div class="Bug6200">A prior restraint, by contrast and by definition, has an immediate and irreversible sanction. If it can be said that a threat of criminal or civil sanctions after publication 'chills' speech, prior restraint 'freezes' it at least for the time.</div></blockquote></blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq">Also, most of the early struggles for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press" title="Freedom of the press">freedom of the press</a> were against forms of prior restraint. Thus prior restraint came to be looked upon with a particular horror, and Anglo-American courts became particularly unwilling to approve it, when they might approve other forms of press restriction.</blockquote> -- SS

SILVERSTEIN v. ABINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: MOTION TO PROHIBIT COMMENTARY ABOUT THIS LITIGATION TO ANY PUBLIC CONTEXT: Do computers have more rights than patients?

Herein is an issue of potential Internet censorship and/or attempted prior restraint of the rights of a citizen to express him/herself fre...

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