Many doctors worry about a single lawsuit.
In Indiana, clinicians and their carriers are responsible for the first $250,000 of a judgment or settlement. Its Patient’s Compensation Fund covers any excess liability up to $1 million.
Dr. Mark Weinberger, a sinus surgeon, was sued by over 300 patients and recently the Indiana Patient’s Compensation Fund wrote checks totaling $63 million. Dr. Weinberger’s carrier added $3 million to the pile.
by Guest Blogger: Dr. Michael Rosenblatt
As if you don’t have enough to deal with: Recently in Ohio, the charge of “conspiracy” was added to Government armamentaria to “control” what they regard as “unnecessary tests and procedures.” http://portsmouth-dailytimes.com/bookmark/23001534 In this case, CT scans and treatments for “non-existent” osteo-arthritis were at issue. You may not think of yourself as an audit target. But if you do a larger number of specific codes (more than others in your local specialty), auditors can use computerized forensics to separate you out. For them, it’s as easy as your generating a monthly bank balance on your PC. Then, they will want to see if you documented them. If you didn’t, it’s fraud.
Every healthcare provider should understand the need to prove necessity of tests and procedures. This rests entirely upon the data in your records. There is an excellent place for at least two more (convenient) methods to do this:
by Michael Sacopulos, JD; General Counsel, Medical Justice From Mary-Poppins to Michael Jackson, below are ten unbelievable, shocking, horrific malpractice cases from the past decade. Michael Jackson The King of Pop died in 2009 as a result of an overdose of the sedative Propofol. The drug was administered by Dr. Conrad Murray who … Read more
By Dr. JD, a plaintiff’s attorney, practicing in the Northeast
4. Will including a documented discussion of a risk or complication protect me from a lawsuit if that problem actually then occurs, since the patient agreed to risk it?
No
Many doctors misinterpret a patient being informed of a potential problem and still electing to go ahead as an “assumption of the risk” situation that would then bar that patient from recovering for an injury incurred as a result. They believe the consent to be a “get out of being sued card”.
The actual fact is that just because something is a known complication or a possibility that was discussed, and which the patient indicated a willingness to risk in hopes of a greater benefit, does not mean that if that problem occurs that it was not the result of negligence. The fact that the patient was aware that it might happen is irrelevant because, in consenting, the patient accepted that sometimes even a perfectly done procedure may have a complication but did not thereby also consent to having the procedure performed negligently, causing the same complication.
Therefore, if the patient-turned-plaintiff can prove that the problem occurred as a result of a breach of the standard of care, that he or she knew that it might happen if the procedure were actually done perfectly does not restrict them from suing for damages that resulted from it.
By Dr. JD, a plaintiff’s attorney, practicing in the Northeast
Consenting a patient is really the entering into of a contractual agreement that will govern the medical care that you will engage in and, as in all contracts, that process requires a meeting of the minds to be valid.
The document called a “consent” is, like a written contract, merely a legal formality that memorializes the end result of that process.
The only role it really plays in a medical malpractice action is when it is not there at all or looks so deficient on its face that it raises serious questions about the propriety of the care ( e.g.; the physician is not named, suggesting that there may have been “ghost surgery”, or the patient’s signature is a scrawl that suggests that they may not have been competent when they signed, or the document itself is post-dated, suggesting that it was only filled-in after the fact).
In fact, since a malpractice claim in which a patient is alleging “lack of informed consent” is actually the patient saying “I did not know something critical to my decision about my care because you did not tell me, and I would not have made the choice about my care that led to my present problem if you had told me what I needed to know”, a signed piece of legal boilerplate is no bar at all to that claim proceeding. At most, it creates a rebuttable presumption that the patient agreed as an informed person, but that simply moves the case forward to the presentation of evidence to provide that rebuttal.
Everybody knows a couple that’s not going to “make it.” They’re destined to part. The question is how much pain or indifference they’ll endure before the inevitable happens. Occasionally, there’s a doctor-patient relationship that’s not going to make it. A dentist recently described his story. Several years ago, he fashioned upper teeth … Read more
Doctors understand the need to warn patients about side effects of medications, as well as drug-drug interactions. The list of things to warn about just got longer. iPads. Apparently magnetic interference from ubiquitous technology devices can alter the settings or potentially deactivate implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). A study was performed by a 14 … Read more
A recent article in Journal of the American Medical Association delved into the touchy subject of mandatory alcohol and drug screening programs for physicians. In their piece titled “Identification of Physician Impairment”, the authors Drs. Pham, Provonost, and Skipper concluded healthcare lags behind other high-risk industries in detecting high-risk factors causing injury or accident. … Read more
The NY Times hosts a column each Sunday called the Ethicist. Readers send in their real-life ethical conundrums, and the columnist weighs-in with advice. Recently, a doctor wrote that “years ago” his patient was having headaches. The patient finally confessed that he committed a serious crime and somebody else “took the fall for it.” … Read more
How often do we hear the phrase – Is there a doctor on-board? I recall hearing that phrase at least 4 times on flights – probably more. Different doctors have different attitudes toward stepping in. In general, an uncompensated doctor is protected from liability via Good Samaritan Laws – as long as the intervention is … Read more
