How to lower your risks from RSD
How to lower your risks from RSD
The key to lowering your facility’s liability risk from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) is to understand the disorder. Experts on the disorder suggest taking these steps:
• Educate your clinical staff, especially emergency physicians.
Emergency physicians will not see much RSD because the disorder does not develop until some time after an initial trauma. However, they should be educated about the basics of RSD and encouraged not to assume that all unexplained claims of pain are malingering. Consider including RSD in the clinical staff’s continuing education programs.
• Beware of over-diagnosis.
While many people truly suffer from RSD, it also is true that the disorder is over-diagnosed because many doctors do not understand it well. If a lawsuit against your facility involves an RSD case, the first step is confirming that the patient has RSD. Obtain a diagnosis from an expert.
• But also beware of RSD "experts."
Some physicians treat an inordinately large number of RSD patients, and that might mean they are over-diagnosing the disorder. If the plaintiff is seeing such a doctor, consider getting a second opinion. Remember that true experts in RSD screen out many false claims of RSD as a routine part of their practice.
• Be sure thermography is used.
Thermography is one of the most reliable ways to diagnose RSD, after the symptoms appear to fit the bill.
• Remember that RSD is difficult to fake.
While you should not accept every claim of RSD as legitimate, remember also that patients will have a very difficult time faking a claim for a doctor who knows how to diagnose the disorder. There are certain patterns and common factors with all RSD patients, so vague complaints of extreme pain are not enough to fool a physician familiar with RSD.
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