Maryland Lawsuits AgainstPENINSULA REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

According to Maryland Judiciary Case Search, Peninsula Regional, entered with that exact spelling, has been sued for medical malpractice 35 times and for tort claims 3 times since 2012. The exact search criteria used on Maryland Judiciary Case Search is as follows:  Company: Peninsula Regional, Party Type: Defendant, Case Type: Civil (Medical Malpractice & Other Tort), Court System: Circuit Court only, County: Default All, Filing Date: 9/26/2012-06/16/2022.

History of Peninsula Regional Medical Center

In 1897, a young doctor named George W. Todd enlisted the help of a powerful state senator and several wealthy businessmen to open Peninsula General Hospital, a six-bed facility on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. During its first year of service, the hospital treated 83 patients and secured almost $3,000 in profits. More beds were added a few years later, and the campus continued to expand along with the community. Today, Peninsula Regional Medical Center (PRMC), as it is now known, treats nearly 600,000 people a year while contributing more than $400 million annually to the Salisbury region where it’s based.

The non-profit facility has gained national attention for its state of the art cardiothoracic and joint replacement programs, and remains the only community hospital on the lower Eastern Shore to offer open heart surgery. PRMC is the cornerstone of Peninsula Regional Health System, a network that includes a variety of primary and specialty care centers as well as several labs and pharmacies.

In September 2020, Peninsula Regional Health System announced it was changing its network name to TidalHealth as part of a rebranding initiative. PRMC is now formally known as TidalHealth Peninsula Regional. When TidalHealth Peninsula Regional is entered on Maryland Judiciary Case Search using the same metrics listed above, the case count increases by 1 medical malpractice claim.

Peninsula Regional Medical Center in the News

In early 2018 PRMC (now known as TidalHealth Peninsula Regional) came under federal investigation for Medicare fraud. The probe was triggered by a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that from 2010 to 2017, private ambulance company Hart to Heart Transportation Services conspired with PRMC to facilitate medically unnecessary ambulance rides for the purpose of generating false Medicare claims. According to the lawsuit, PRMC patients ready for discharge were evaluated to confirm if they could stand and walk on their own – abilities that typically prohibit Medicare reimbursement for ambulance transport. Those patients were then reportedly asked to lie down and then strapped to a stretcher for an ambulance discharge billed to Medicare. If a patient refused these directives, Hart to Heart paramedics allegedly falsified Medicare billing reports to indicate they could not walk and required ambulance transport. The lawsuit named PRMC as a co-defendant along with Hart to Heart, arguing that staff at the hospital “acquiesced in and facilitated” the transport scheme.

While PRMC was eventually dropped from the lawsuit, Hart to Heart agreed to pay a $1.25 million settlement to the U.S. government in 2019. However, the company maintained that the settlement “is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing of any kind.”

Some of the major personal injury attorneys that regularly sue TidalHealth Peninsula Regional for medical malpractice are: Schochor, Federico And Staton, P.A.; Peter Angelos Law; and Bekman, Marder, Hopper, Malarkey & Perlin.

As the hospital is based in Wicomico County, most of the cases filed in the Maryland circuit court system against PRMC were in Wicomico County Circuit Court. If you or a loved one have been injured by PRMC, you should contact a personal injury lawyer to assess your claim.

Last updated June 16, 2022