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The "standard of care" often has a significant impact on the outcome of ED malpractice lawsuits, but the way this is defined can vary according to state law and other factors.
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If an emergency physician is arrested for assaulting a patient or for inappropriate sexual conduct, there is potential liability exposure for both the emergency medicine group and the hospital where the ED is located, says Thomas H. Taylor, a health care attorney at LaCrosse, WI-based Johns, Flaherty & Collins.
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A small but growing number of EDs are implementing self-service computer kiosks to streamline the triage process. Potential benefits may include improved patient flow and satisfaction, but what are the liability risks of this practice?
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More than half of nurses surveyed in a San Francisco hospital said they would not report for work if a influenza pandemic hit, and nearly half said they wouldn't report following a denotation of a radioactive bomb or during a smallpox attack.
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The ED physician has three obligations to the sexual assault patient, any one of which can potentially lead to liability, according to Howard A. Peth Jr., MD, JD, an attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, MO.
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Patient handoffs, or turning over a patient's care to another physician, are high-risk encounters in emergency medicine due to the potential for breakdowns in communication.
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There are, of course, a number of chart documentation methods and the goals of the various methods are all the same: 1) to memorialize the patient encounter for future reference by other caregivers; 2) to provide information for billing purposes; and 3) to create a legal document that allows quality review whether in the medical setting or in the courtroom.
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Do you believe that once your patient is evaluated by an on-call consultant in your ED, you are abdicated from any future liability? "ED physicians frequently believe this, but this is absolutely not true," says James Hubler, MD, JD, assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.
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The introduction of vaccines that prevent bacteremia has significantly reduced the risk of serious bacterial infections associated with Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. How does this impact liability risks when caring for febrile children?
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Guidelines for the management of febrile children dating back to 1993 have complicated liability risks for EDs since they were published, and continue to play a role in ED medical malpractice litigation, says Jim Wilde, MD, director of pediatric emergency medicine at the Medical College of Georgia, who also is fellowship-trained in pediatric infectious diseases.