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Abstract: 

Our regular review of cases involving the delivery of health care in prisons and jails includes coverage of Crawford v. McMillan, a suit filed against a warden and staff medical professionals at a Pennsylvania prison, alleging inadequate medical care and deliberate indifference to serious medical need over an incident in which a P.A. delayed STD testing until the inmate’s prior medical records could be obtained— the court finding no deliberate indifference in what it deemed a reasonable exercise of judgment; a similar finding in Mercer v. APS Healthcare of no deliberate indifference in a prison health service team delaying orthopedic surgery evaluation referrals in order to fully explore less invasive alternatives; and a 7th Circuit ruling in Zaya v. Sood, a case in which the issue was whether a primary care physician’s refusal to order specialist care was a matter of disagreement over conflicting diagnoses, or simple carelessness that rose to the level of deliberate indifference; the Court’s decision permits plaintiff’s suit under §1983, claiming that a more-than-three-week delay in sending plaintiff back to a specialist when symptoms of extreme deterioration clearly dictated additional treatment amounted to deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs in violation of the Eighth Amendment, to proceed.

Keywords: Reasonable and prudent care v. deliberate delay

Affiliations:  1: Ohio Supreme Court Library.