Michigan Court Says Company Rule Can Be Malpractice Evidence (1)

Michigan health-care providers can have their internal patient care guidelines—known as standing orders—turn into potential medical malpractice evidence, a unanimous Michigan Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Justices overruled a Michigan Court of Appeals decision that would have excluded from evidence a nursing home’s standing order about care for choking patients in a medical malpractice case seeking damages when a patient died after inhaling his own vomit. After the patient vomited twice, the attending nurse didn’t contact a physician, which Shelby Nursing Center in Shelby Township required in its rules for care for such patients.

Health-care providers forced into litigation may have …