No matter what kind of family doctor you have or what they specialize in, they could make mistakes in their work. In the worst cases, these mistakes can lead to patients suing the doctors who made them. You would know and understand this if you were a doctor. Knowing that you do everything you can to keep your patients from suing you will help you relax. But it is not a secret that you’re likely to be sued by a patient at some point in your career. Sometimes doctors have to face medical malpractice lawyers employed by a patient. But why so?
There are many reasons why people sue their doctors. And most of the time, they have to face legal actions by medical malpractice lawyers appointed by the patients. Here are some tips on avoiding the seven most common risks that can force a patient to sue a family doctor.
Table of Contents
1. Negative Or Inadequate Diagnosis
The most common claim is that a doctor didn’t diagnose the disease quickly enough. Breast cancer is the most common disease for this claim. Too much reliance on a falsely negative mammogram is a common reason breast cancer isn’t caught early or at all. If you feel a lump or have a problem with your breast, you should see a doctor. Mammography may be a good way to screen for breast cancer, but it is not a good way to diagnose it.
2. Poor Care For Pregnant Women
The use of oxytocin, especially when a baby is upset and the doctor keeps pushing the drug, and a failed handoff are two things that often get family doctors in trouble. The classic example of a bad handoff is when something bad happens on a Friday night while the patient’s regular doctor is away for the weekend. The covering doctor doesn’t know much about the patient and has never seen them before.
3. Negligent Fracture Or Trauma Care
Patients with “sprained” wrists and pain in the snuffbox should be thought to have broken navicular or scaphoid bones until they can prove otherwise. A thumb spica cast is a good idea until the pain goes away, or X-rays can tell if the bone is broken. A patient with a popliteal fossa injury, usually when the knee hits the dashboard in a car accident, is another thing to watch out for.
4. Not Consulting At The Right Time
One tries to follow the “rule of three,” which says that if they can’t figure out and fix a patient’s problem in three visits, they ask for help. It could be a partner across the hall, a specialist down the street, or someone else. You may ask why they cut me off at three. Because it is as good a number as any other and because it keeps you from putting things off indefinitely while the patient keeps having problems.
5. Negligent Drug Treatment
Iatrogenic injuries caused by drugs send thousands of people annually to the hospital. Many of these injuries are caused by the use of warfarin, which is one of the most dangerous drugs you can get on prescription. Because the drug has a very narrow therapeutic window, the clinical care team needs to use a protocol to ensure that patients are well-informed about how to use it and that their International Normalized Ratios are checked regularly.
6. Doing Things Wrong
The most common problem family doctors have with procedures is not that they do things they were not trained to do, like when they are tired or thinking about something else. When this happens, the procedure goes wrong. If medical malpractice occurs, these doctors are sued by medical malpractice lawyers appointed by the patients.
Bottom line
Being a doctor, the first thing you need to do is to determine that the patients are taken care of. However, No one can promise that you will not be sued. But building good relationships with patients, encouraging good communication with them, colleagues, and other members of the care team, staying up-to-date on clinical skills, and making charts that are accurate and easy to read can do a lot to reduce liability risk.
