[05/30/02]After 20 years screening and providing game-day treatment to athletes at Warren Central High School, the team doctor is calling it quits, saying his exposure to lawsuits is too high to continue.

Dr. John Robert Ford said last week he cannot afford the liability or face the financial risk as team doctor due to Mississippi’s litigious climate and jury awards given in the past year.

“The lawsuits have gotten out of hand,” Ford said.

His work at the school has been in addition to his private clinical practice. Ford, also a former school board member, has not been sued by any students, but, he said, companies that sell medical malpractice insurance really frown on their clients working outside clinics or hospitals.

Rick Graham, assistant football coach and team trainer at Warren Central, said team doctors attend many events, provide physicals certifying players as eligible, and provide a lot of assurance. While not all schools have medical doctors on the sidelines, Graham said Ford will be missed.

“It’s invaluable to know the team doctor is going to be right there,” Graham said.

Larry Bourne, vice president of Doctors Insurance Reciprocal, a medical insurance provider in Jackson that insures about 500 physicians in the state, said insurance rates at his company have increased 80-85 percent in the past year. Rates have increased because of the frequency of lawsuits and the severity of awards issued by juries, he said.

“If you look in the newspaper there are attorneys advertising every day,” Bourne said. “It’s out of control.”

Warren County Rep. Chester Masterson, a retired physician, said he understands the situation. “We’ve had several physicians move out of the state,” Masterson said. “North of I-20 there are only two neurosurgeons providing immediate care for trauma patients with head injuries.”

Masterson is a member of the legislative study committee meeting in advance of a special session expected on the topic.

Fred Worthy, head athletic trainer for the River Region Hospital, oversees team trainers for Warren Central High School, Vicksburg High School and St. Aloysius High School. He does not know who will replace Ford as Warren Central’s team doctor. Worthy said the team doctors for Vicksburg High School and St. Aloysius High School have not notified him of any plans to discontinue their services.