Reputation Management - Medical Justice

Three Things Every Doctor MUST Know About Medical Malpractice

August 15, 2024October 7, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Everyone knows that physicians are much more educated than most, knowledgeable of all the complex systems of the human body, how they work together, and what to do when those systems fail. But today’s doctor needs to know a lot more than that. He or she must also be a bit of an entrepreneur and manager, familiar with many aspects of business. Perhaps the most important non-medical aspect for a physician to become well versed in is risk management.

Here are three things that every doctor must know about medical malpractice:

Hey, Doc! Here’s The Cure For What Ails Ya!

August 15, 2024September 28, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

When people ask how things are going, it’s most often a polite habit, a rhetorical question. When a physician asks a patient that same question, they really do want and need to know. After all, how can a doctor diagnose and treat and cure anyone if they don’t know what’s wrong? It’s generally easier, more accurate and more efficient for the patient to provide the complaint. How can the doctor know what to fix if the patient doesn’t say what’s bothering?

It’s said that the doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient. In this circumstance, though, we really don’t have much of a choice. But that doesn’t change the diagnostic method a bit. We still have to know what’s wrong with our healthcare system before we can fix it. “Fool for a patient” or not, we’re still the only ones that can do the job. So let’s go ahead and ask the question. How are you doing? What are your complaints? What ails ya?

Flawed Malpractice Insurance Profiling Affects 22% of Physicians

August 15, 2024September 12, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Medical Malpractice Insurance companies, employing a two-tier system to pigeonhole doctors by costs, have been demonstrated to inaccurately classify those physicians 22% of the time. (Rand Corp. Report, New England Journal of Medicine.)

“Consumers, physicians, and purchasers are all at risk of being misled by the results produced by these tools,” concluded the researchers who analyzed aggregated claims data for 2004 and 2005 from four Massachusetts insurance companies. Using “commercial software,” they looked at data from 12,789 physicians in 10 specialties and constructed “homogeneous episodes of care” to create cost profiles for healthcare episodes such as treatments for diabetes, heart attack or urinary tract infection.

Think Online Rep Doesn’t Matter? Think Again!

August 15, 2024July 27, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Most of us who live and work in the Real World barely have time to read email, let alone think of the Internet as having any serious impact on us. After all, that’s all just electronic, virtual reality. We operate in the tangible, corporeal world, right? Don’t be too sure about that. Many aspects of a physician’s career are intangible. The education, for example, is just represented by that piece of paper on the wall. The education itself is an intangible. One’s reputation is another essential, intangible asset. But with the Internet, your reputation (far more so than an education) has the potential to be in a constant state of flux. Even if you have 20 people saying how wonderful you are for every one person who claims you’re a quack, it’s still that one bad comment that is going to get the attention and ruin your reputation. It really should be expected, because the content patient doesn’t make it their life’s work to discredit you with their allegations. Remember, an allegation is all it takes. People think “Where there’s smoke, there must be some sort of fire,” so they move on a physician who may be nowhere near as highly experienced as you, but who also hasn’t had the chance to rack up any bad feedback yet. So you get the bad rep, and the new guy gets the patient.

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