Publications Archives | Page 4 Of 7 | Medical Malpractice Insurance Is Not Enough

Nothing’s worse than having the first appointment of your day interrupted by an unpleasant surprise. Instead of the child who is running a fever or the father who’s concerned about his blood pressure, you are faced with a sheriff serving a summons. Instead of helping a patient learn what she can do to feel better, you are scrambling for ways to make yourself feel better. Not good.

In 2007 alone, nearly 11,500 malpractice claims were paid in the United States, and the average cost of defending a claim today—win or lose—hovers around $30,000, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. But preventive care in the legal world works much the same way as in medicine. Try adopting some common-sense methods, an “eat-right-and-don’t-smoke” model of addressing the legal system. This will keep lawyers out of your office and out of your life.

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Limiting Exposure to Medical Malpractice Claims and Defamatory Cyber Postings via Patient Contracts

by Medical Justice | Feb 1, 2009 | Publications

Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research
Volume 467, Number 2 / February, 2009;
Pages 427-433
By: Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD, FACS and Michael Sacopulos, JD

Full article located at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l70470072p905200/?p=d3a3c9ac51be47b0a29d3cdf9fe67fb2&pi=14

Abstract

The documents patients sign on admission to a medical practice can constitute a legal contract. Medical practices around the country are attempting to use these documents as a prospective defense against medical malpractice claims. Protective contractual provisions are often attacked on grounds that they are legally void as a result of unconscionability. Widespread use of arbitration clauses have been met with mixed success. Arbitration clauses that limit damages available in medical negligence cases have been stricken in some states as having provisions that impose excessive entry costs on a patient starting the arbitration process. Other provisions relating to prequalification requirements for expert witnesses are now being used with increasing frequency. Clauses have even been placed in patient contracts that address cyber postings of adverse claims against physicians. Prospective patient contracts may be an effective means to limit exposure to medical malpractice lawsuits and to minimize defamatory cyber postings.