I enjoyed your July 11 article "City Gives Birth to Tech Firms, But Can't Keep Them." I just wanted to comment on Modcloth's refusal to admit the truth on Twitter. I tweeted about them moving their headquarters out of Pittsburgh to the West Coast and pasted the link to your article. They responded with "spin." Here are some direct responses:

ModClothBuzz: We are opening an office in SF, but definitely not moving out of Pittsburgh. E-mail press@modcloth.com for any other questions!

Modcloth: The PG reports that we are opening an office in San Francisco, which is correct. We are super excited:)

Modcloth: We are opening up offices in other cities, but have no fear -- our Pittsburgh location will remain in operation!

Perhaps they need to be exposed for what they are -- opportunists who used Pittsburgh's cheap rent, etc. I hope the company fails.

CLAUDIA MARTIN
Latrobe

The July 18 "Medical Malpractice Suits In Pa. Have Diminished But Still Take A Financial And Emotional Toll On Doctors, Some Of Whom No Longer Treat Patients" touches on some serious issues. I am a retired physician who practiced medicine for more than 40 years.

While the number of suits has declined, this provides no solace to the individual physician who works in constant fear of being sued. The legal profession considers litigation its modus operandi and rarely feels it personally. However, the physician views a lawsuit as an attack on his or her professional ability and takes it very personally, often with career-destroying results. What a waste of many years of study, training, expense and future value to society.

Furthermore, it will be impossible to control medical costs unless physicians can stop practicing "defensive medicine." A large amount of medical testing and "treatment" is of this type.

Finally, the high cost of medical liability insurance (when and if it can be obtained by a solo physician) prevents newly retired physicians from working part time, thus depriving our population of the services and experience of many productive and "seasoned" physicians. Articles such as yours are valuable to inform the public of some of the serious effects of medical litigation.

HIRSH WACHS, M.D.
Squirrel Hill

I read your article on medical malpractice and the ramifications of it and would like to point out that malpractice reform needs to be more than caps on lawsuits and loser pays, as most people seem to think.

One big problem that is little understood is the use of what I call "shotgun law." That's best explained by example:

Let's say that a loved one has a tragic event, say a heart attack or an auto accident, and ends up at the emergency room. The patient receives intensive care over a couple of weeks, including time in the intensive care unit. Usually such cases require multiple specialists plus the usual emergency doctors, family physician and any interns in training.

The patient has a "bad outcome" such as death, paralysis or permanent disability. The patient or his family decides to sue.

The normal course taken by attorneys is to subpoena all paperwork relevant to the patient and then sue all doctors, interns, nurses, supervisors and all professionals that saw the patient, including phlebotomists, inhalation therapists, physical therapists and more. Often more than 25 people are named in a lawsuit.

All of these people must then contact their liability carriers, which then start a defense. They review all documents, take depositions, talk to witnesses and more. All of this has huge costs involved, often more than $50,000 per person.

Once they go to trial, most are dropped from the suit as the plaintiff's attorney will concentrate on one or two people thought most responsible. But these costs of the insurers are never reimbursed.

This practice must be stopped. Attorneys taking a case should be required to do their due diligence and determine who is most likely responsible for any errors made. Or anyone that is named and then dropped from a lawsuit should have all costs reimbursed, including insurance and preparation time lost.

JIM LITWINOWICZ
New Castle

The brutal honesty of the malpractice story illustrates the tragic loss to our communities caused by malpractice lawsuits, and the candor of Dr. Judy Ross is one step toward its remedy.

When we see how these lawsuits affect great doctors, and, in fact, cause these doctors to rethink their career choices, it's apparent that our lawsuit-happy culture is causing great loss. Dr. Ross took care of my mother, and we could not imagine a finer, more compassionate, more beautifully skilled surgeon.

I work at St. Clair Hospital, and every week I have patients dissolving into tears because they no longer have Dr. Ross to lean on. I'm sure it was painful for Dr. Ross to be so candid about the malpractice suits that caused her to make such a difficult choice -- but in such candor we can truly see how these lawsuits are hurting all of us.

While many malpractice lawsuits are certainly justified, I hope that we learn to appreciate the great costs they exact on our doctors.

JULIE PROSEK
Scott

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