Here is what a friend has said to me about discharge packs and hospital
staff's requirement to give them out.

> I think we could also start to evoke doubts in
> the administrators by encouraging people to ask sweetly about what the
> hospital's legal liability might be if one of the children to whom the
> formula was provided by staff turns out to have adverse reactions to >it-- asthma, say, or IDDM, or chronic otitis media... Especially >because international standards of practice have been established (by >the Code) and the hospital in going against those standards for >monetary gain is taking a position that will leave it very vulnerable >both in terms of PR and in the US court system.

> I think we need to work to make the adminstrators see they are >treading on thin ice, and empowering the LCs to say "I can't possibly >do this unless the contract which specifies that I do it is part of the
>published nursing protocols of this hospital, and known to all staff
>members in detail.  I need to see the document under which our hospital
>has accepted the legal liability for adverse consequences of formula
>distribution."  The problem is that many of our LC colleagues don't yet
>know this kind of vocabulary and need coaching such as you provide to
>get into the dialogue.

How about it?  If "doing the right thing" doesn't seem to "grab them",
maybe liability will.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC