ED Legal Letter – September 1, 2007
September 1, 2007
View Issues
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ED overcrowding and ambulance diversion cause potential liabilities
Emergency medicine practitioners have little control over the flow of patients into their facilities. Federal law requires them to examine and treat virtually everyone who comes through the door. -
Poor triage processes can get you sued, criminally charged
The news stories shocked many Americans: ED staff ignored a dying woman's pleas for help as she bled to death of a perforated bowel on the floor of their waiting room. -
Change the "footprint" of wait areas, reduce lawsuits
To solve the problems that contributed to ED staff actions being considered as potentially criminal in recent cases of patient deaths in Los Angeles and Illinois, the answer doesn't lie in reducing risks of adverse events in patients kept waiting for hours. -
Do EM residents worry about lawsuits too much?
When a group of physicians starting emergency medicine residencies in California were surveyed, researchers found that malpractice fear markedly decreased the interns' enjoyment of medicine. -
Special Report: Use caution when buying medical malpractice coverage
Physicians should not purchase medical malpractice insurance from the surplus lines insurance markets unless there is no coverage available to them from the admitted markets.