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When a 37-year-old pregnant woman presented to an ED with right upper quadrant pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, communication between the emergency physician (EP) and the patients obstetrician became a key issue in the ensuing malpractice litigation.
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Infectious diseases account for a significant percentage of emergency department (ED) visits each year and are frequent sources of litigation. A plaintiff verdict or settlement is usually based on a delay in diagnosis and subsequent substandard treatment. It is important to recognize specific infectious entities early to avoid medical-legal exposure. We present five cases of infectious disease malpractice that highlight pearls and pitfalls.
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Psychiatric patients boarded in EDs awaiting available beds present significant liability risks for emergency physicians (EPs) for several reasons, according to Leslie Zun, MD, MBA, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, IL
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An emergency physician (EP) caring for a 62-year-old man after a motor vehicle accident interpreted the chest X-ray as negative. The radiologist overreading the chest films the next day noted a left lung nodule, but the patient was never notified.
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Approximately 5% of patients presenting to EDs have neurological symptoms such as headache, dizziness, back pain, weakness, and seizure disorder, but little is known about the factors that led to misdiagnoses of neurological emergencies in the ED, according to a 2012 review of studies.1
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Did an emergency physician (EP) have a telephone consult without requesting that the specialist see or examine the patient?