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Prince George’s Hospital Center

This page will look at medical malpractice cases against UM Prince George’s Hospital Center. Our Maryland hospital malpractice attorneys are very familiar with PG Hospital and we have extensive experience bringing medical negligence cases against this facility.

About UM Prince George’s Hospital

Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, Maryland is one of the biggest hospitals in the D.C. area. Originally founded in 1944, PG Hospital has over 420 staffed patient beds and averages 55,000 annual inpatient admissions. 

PG Hospital has a Level II Trauma Center which treats 3,000 patients each year, making it the second busiest trauma center in the state.

Prince George’s County Hospital is part of University of Maryland Capital Region Heath (formerly Dimensions Healthcare System), a non-profit healthcare organization which is part of the larger University of Maryland Medical System. 

Approximately half of the patients at Prince George’s Hospital Center are on Medicaid or are uninsured. This puts financial pressure on the facility.

PGHC provides care in a wide variety of areas, including emergency medicine and traumatic critical care, obstetrics (including a home-like birthing center with midwives), cardiac care, and a wide variety of surgical procedures. UM Capital Region Health is in the final stages of construction on 2 brand new facilities that will replace the existing PGHC and UM Laurel Health Center.

Medical Malpractice at PG Hospital

Prince George’s County Hospital Center has a poor reputation for patient care and is widely considered to be a bad hospital. PG County residents seeking higher quality care routinely have long driven past PGHC and other hospitals in the County to seek care in Washington, D.C., Anne Arundel or Montgomery County.

PGHC’s bad reputation is reflected in the available data. PG Hospital consistently ranks as the lowest (or second lowest) rated hospital in Maryland in terms of patient safety and level of care. 

In the 2021 hospital grades from healthcare watchdog group Leapfrog, UM Prince George’s Hospital Center received a letter grade of D.  This is the grade a bad hospital gets. Only one other hospital in Maryland (Bon Secours) got a letter grade below C. 

The Leapfrog report card for PGHC suggests that the hospital has effective administrative systems for patient care. However, it ranks extremely low for issues related to patient neglect (e.g., bed sores, patient falls).

Just like any big hospital (even those with good reputations) medical negligence and malpractice are commonplace at PG Hospital. Any facility that treats the number of patients that PGHC does every year is going to be involved in malpractice claims on a regular basis. UM Prince George’s Hospital Center gets named as a defendant in around 10-15 medical malpractice claims each year.

Where to File Medical Malpractice Cases Against Prince George’s Hospital

UM Prince George’s Hospital Center is located in PG County and its parent company (UM Capital Region Health) is also headquartered in PG County. Because all UM Capital Region Health’s facilities are located in PG County, this means that the only venue for malpractice cases against the hospital is the Circuit Court for Prince’s George’s County.

Prince George’s County is a very good jurisdiction for plaintiffs, so most cases against PGHC are filed in the Prince George’s County Circuit Court. 

Defense lawyers and insurance adjusters know this, and it can help grease the path to settlement in medical malpractice cases. Most cases filed in the Prince George’s County Circuit Court get to trial within 15 months, sometimes even in a year from the date of filing.

A few years ago, Prince George’s County Hospital was hit with a $16.5 million malpractice verdict in a cerebral palsy case.

Prince George’s Hospital Center Defense Strategy in Malpractice Cases

Hospitals generally make for good defendants in malpractice cases because they are typically more willing to settle cases quickly compared to doctors. 

This is because hospitals are more concerned with protecting their public image and they don’t have to worry about their malpractice insurance rates going up. In our experience, this stereotype definitely applies to PGHC and the University of Maryland Medical System in general.

When PGHC gets sued for malpractice, they are typically defended by Brault Graham, LLC (Rockville); Armstrong, Donohue, Ceppos, Vaughan & Rhodes, Chtd. (Rockville); and sometimes Phillip Zuber from Sasscer, Clagett & Bucher.

Recent Prince George’s Hospital Lawsuits

Below are summaries of recent medical malpractice claims filed against PGHC.

  • Parker v. Prince George’s Hospital Center: A medical malpractice case was filed after a 27-year-old man suffered from permanent neurological impairment and immobility due to a doctor failing to diagnose his inflammatory myelopathy.
  • Sims v. Prince George’s Hospital Center: A wrongful death case was filed against Prince George’s Hospital after a patient died from hypoxia. After the patient came out of surgery, it was found that she was hypoxic. Doctors were unable to determine the cause but failed to transfer her to a level one trauma center. An ECMO is recommended, but the doctor improperly places her on ECMO. The patient’s condition continued to deteriorate until she eventually passes. 
  • Richardson v. Prince George’s Hospital Center: A medical malpractice case is filed after it was found that a man was fraudulently practicing medicine as an OB/GYN despite having no medical degree or license. While in the hospital, he improperly delivers a baby that should have been delivered via C-section, which results in the baby having developmental delays and impairments. 

Ordering Medical Records from Prince George’s Hospital Center

Lawyers and their physician experts need medical records in order to determine whether you have a medical malpractice lawsuit. If you hire a malpractice lawyer, that lawyer will likely undertake the collection of the relevant medical records.  If you want to order them yourself, medical records from PGHC can be obtained
from:

Prince Georges Hospital Center
3001 Hospital Drive
Cheverly, Maryland 20785
Phone: 301-618-2120
Fax: (301)-618-2997

Serving Process on Prince George’s County Hospital

To sue this hospital, you want to serve the resident agent with a complaint filed in Maryland Health Claims Arbitration.  You serve:

University of Maryland Capital Region Health
3001 Hospital Drive
Cheverly, Maryland 20785

Serve on Resident Agent
Megan M. Arthur
250 W. Pratt Street, 24th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland 21225

Contact Us About PG Hospital Malpractice

If you believe that you have a medical malpractice case against Prince George’s Hospital Center, contact our medical malpractice attorneys at 1.800.553.8082, or send us a free internet request for consultation. Our medical malpractice lawyers try hard to give prospective clients a nearly instant response.

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