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Network for Public Health Law
COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health Emergency Law & Policy Responses

Shoemaker v. UMPC Pinnacle Hospitals

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Overview

Shoemaker v. UMPC Pinnacle Hospitals (Superior Court of PA, Sept. 22, 2022):A Pennsylvania appellate court held that a lower state court overstepped its authority when issuing an injunction requiring health care providers not credentialed in intensive care to administer ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient at the request of the patient’s power of attorney (POA) and against hospital policy. In compliance with the lower court’s injunction, the hospital began administering ivermectin but appealed to the Superior Court. Although the patient passed before the Superior Court could resolve the issue, the court decided the issue because of the importance of the outcome to the public. In its decision to overturn the injunction, the Superior Court described the lower court injunction as “practicing medicine from the bench,” and emphasized that no laws or judicial precedent support the idea that patients have a legal right to demand medical treatments in conflict with their providers’ medical opinion, to compel a hospital to administer treatment against its institutional policy, or to require a hospital to credential a provider to administer such treatment. Read the full decision here.


View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – December 14, 2022.

View all cases under “COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health Emergency Law & Policy Responses.”