Malpractice in Emergency Medicine-A Review of Risk and Mitigation Practices for the Emergency Medicine Provider

The Journal of Emergency Medicine
Brian FergusonMartin Huecker

Abstract

Malpractice in emergency medicine is of high concern for medical providers, the fear of which continues to drive decision-making. The body of evidence evaluating risk specific to emergency physicians is disjointed, and thus it remains difficult to derive cohesive themes and strategies for risk minimization. This review evaluates the state of malpractice in emergency medicine and summarizes a concise approach for the emergency physician to minimize risk. The environment of the emergency department (ED) represents moderate overall malpractice risk and yields a heavy burden in finance and time. Key areas of relatively high litigation occurrence include missed acute myocardial infarction, missed fractures/foreign bodies, abdominal pain/appendicitis, wounds, intracranial bleeding, aortic aneurysm, and pediatric meningitis. Mitigation of risk is best accomplished through constructive communication, intelligent documentation, utilization of clinical practice guidelines and generalizable diagnoses, careful management of discharge against medical advice, and establishing follow-up for diagnostic studies ordered while in the ED (especially x-ray studies). Communication breakdown seems to be more predictive of malpractice litigation than ...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 29, 2020·Journal of Clinical Medicine·Isabelle OsterwalderRoland Bingisser
May 8, 2020·BMC Medical Education·Else Dalsgaard IversenJette Ammentorp
Oct 21, 2020·Journal of Healthcare Risk Management : the Journal of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management·Laura C MyersEmily L Aaronson
Jul 7, 2021·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·Paul I MuseyChristopher R Carpenter
May 23, 2021·Academic Emergency Medicine : Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine·Christopher R CarpenterJeffrey A Kline
Feb 4, 2021·Critical Pathways in Cardiology·Nataisia TerryMichael A Ross

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