Medical Malpractice
MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, located in Leonardtown, Maryland, is a major healthcare provider for Southern Maryland. Founded in 1912, it offers a comprehensive range of services, including emergency care, acute inpatient services, and a variety of outpatient care options.
Despite being a relatively small facility with 114 licensed beds, MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital is part of the larger MedStar Health network. This affiliation has expanded its resources and access to specialized care, linking it with MedStar Health’s other hospitals and facilities throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
As a member of the Chesapeake-Potomac Healthcare Alliance, MedStar St. Mary’s works in collaboration with Calvert Health in Prince Frederick and the University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center in La Plata. This partnership allows these hospitals to coordinate on healthcare services, community health initiatives, and resource-sharing, which is particularly important for patients in rural and semi-rural areas who may otherwise have limited access to specialized care.
MedStar Health, as you likely know if you are reading this, is massive. It operates ten hospitals and over 300 care locations throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C. As of fiscal year 2023, the health system reported over 405,000 emergency department visits and 6 million outpatient visits across its facilities. The network employs more than 33,000 healthcare professionals. It maintains over 2,500 inpatient beds, which means patients at MedStar St. Mary’s can be referred to larger facilities within the network for specialized treatment and complex care.
However, despite being part of a well-resourced health system, MedStar St. Mary’s has faced, as we talk about below, malpractice lawsuits and complaints regarding patient care. These issues often center around allegations of inadequate treatment, diagnostic errors, and delays in care—issues that are unfortunately not uncommon in smaller community hospitals with fewer on-site specialists.
The hospital’s emergency department, which sees tens of thousands of visits annually, has been criticized for long wait times and challenges in managing high patient volumes. Additionally, like many rural and semi-rural hospitals, MedStar St. Mary’s struggles with staffing shortages, which can impact the quality of care and lead to potential lapses in patient safety.
The hospital offers a range of services, including:
- Pediatrics
- Radiology
- Eye Care
- Emergency Care
- Rehabilitation (Cardiac and Pulmonary)
- Wound Care
- Orthopedics
- Sleep Center
- Internal Medicine
- Primary Medicine
- Maternity Services
- Surgery
- Heart Care/Vascular Disease
So how good of a hospital is St. Mary’s? Medicare gives it three stars. That sounds about right. Most of the ratings you see are three stars across the board.
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Filed Against MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital
Before 2024, our lawyers were unable to find We have not been able to find any verdicts or settlements involving St. Mary’s Hospital, which is likely due to a combination of the settlements being confidential and the cases settling early on. Also not an insignificant factor: St. Mary’s County is a tough place to try medical malpractice claims. We have had a lot of success on the Eastern Shore. But St. Mary’s County jurors are typically going to favor doctors and hospitals in close call cases. Most malpractice lawsuits filed by experienced medical malpractice attorneys in St. Mary’s County are very viable claims or they would not been filed in the first place.
2024 Verdict
In 2024, a St. Mary’s County jury awarded $1.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, involving allegations that a surgeon left part of a woman’s gallbladder behind during surgery. The plaintiff experienced severe abdominal pain and recurrent health issues for nearly two years after the initial procedure, ultimately requiring additional surgery to remove the remnant gallbladder.
The jury found that the surgeon breached the standard of care, leading to complications and a prolonged recovery. The defense lawyers for St. Mary’s argued that the woman’s unique anatomy complicated the initial surgery, but the jury rejected this “abnormal anatomy” defense that you often seen in lap chole lawsuits like this.
Here are some other lawsuits that have been filed against MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital in the past few years. We do not have a ton of details on many of these claims.
- Miller v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim involving delayed diagnosis for a sinus tumor.
- Petroskey v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim alleging that a computerized tomography was incorrectly read.
- Siebert v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice case regarding negligent care of a patient with a fall risk.
- Heimer v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim alleging misdiagnosis of an extensive spinal epidural abscess resulting in permanent neurological injury.
- Holder v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim following the misdiagnosis of a condition resulting in sepsis.
- Seibert v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim.
- Biscoe v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim alleging negligence leading to a stroke and permanent hemiparesis.
- Morgan v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim.
- Thompson v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim alleging failure to diagnose and treat portal-vein thrombosis, leading to brain injuries and organ failure.
- Tunick v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim.
- Baird v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim.
- Alley v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice wrongful death claim.
- Hart v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim.
- Fuesel v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim.
- Guy v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Medical malpractice claim.
- McCampbell v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Tort/negligence claim.
- McIntosh v. St. Mary’s Hospital – Tort/negligence claim.
Getting a Lawyer for Your Hospital Malpractice Claim
Contact Miller and Zois today if you or someone you know was a patient at St. Mary’s Hospital and were seriously injured. You can get a free consultation online or give us a call at 800-553-8082 to talk to one of our attorney’s. Our firm has a history of settlements and large verdicts in medical malpractice cases in Maryland.
Other Information & Related Topics
- Take a look at all of the kinds of claims that Miller and Zois handles
- An overview of medical malpractice claims
- Another MedStar facility located in Baltimore City
- Information about St. Mary’s County
- What is the potential value of a medical malpractice case?
- A case filed in Charles County after a girl was born at St. Mary’s Hospital
- A case filed against another MedStar facility in Prince George’s County