Test the Waters Before Signing an Employment Contract

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It sounded like a great job. You saw the ad in the back of JUCM and contacted the person listed at the bottom. He seemed pleasant enough on the phone and the pay was what you thought was the market rate for the area. The next day, you drove over for the interview, which consisted of only four questions (the first being “If you were a tree…” and the …

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Vicarious Liability

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It’s 8:15 on Sunday morning. This is the first morning you have actually been able to sleep in since you opened the urgent care center five months ago. Truth be told, you drank a glass (or two) of wine too many last night and are still feeling the effects this morning. However, you don’t care; you have the day off and you can slouch around till noon and no …

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Overview of a Malpractice Trial (and How to Survive)

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It’s game day. The trial begins today and your fate will be decided by a jury of your “peers.” Never mind the fact that none of them are physicians, only three have been to college, and two did not even graduate from high school; in the eyes of the law, they are your peers and will be the ones to decide if your care met the standard of care. …

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Settling the Case

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP The deposition is over. Your counsel tells you that, despite your barely concealed disdain for the opposing counsel, you managed to hold your own and not say anything from which you can’t recover. Unfortunately, you had to burn your dark blue suit both for the bad memories associated with it and because you are not sure if even dry cleaning it would help. Nevertheless, you are feeling pretty good! …

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How to Prepare for and Give a Deposition

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP You are sitting at a long mahogany table in an unfamiliar, yetvery well-appointed, office wearing the same dark suit that you last wore at your cousin’s funeral. A pale, gaunt man with what looks like a small typewriter scrambles furiously to keep up with your rapid-pressured response to the question, “Doctor, for the record, please state your name and current address.” Is this a bad dream? Only if you …

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What to Do When You Get Named in a Malpractice Suit

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Your front office receptionist informs you that there is a man at the door who says he is a process server, and that he wants you to sign for a registered letter. Your first thought, of course, is to run out the back door of your office or to simply feign a stroke. Instead, common sense prevails and you sign for the letter informing you that you are a …

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Protecting Yourself Against Medical Malpractice Claims, Part 2

In the December issue of JUCM, Dr. Shufeldt introduced a discussion on how to not be named in a malpractice suit by suggesting that providing excellent customer service, never saying “no” to a patient, and thorough documentation of the pertinent positives and negatives are viable techniques to reduce your malpractice exposure. Here, he continues the discussion with other precautions you can take. Failure to make an appropriate referral is a reason commonly cited when providers …

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Protecting Yourself Against Medical Malpractice Claims, Part 2

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In the December issue of JUCM, Dr. Shufeldt introduced a discussion on how to not be named in a malpractice suit by suggesting that providing excellent customer service, never saying “no” to a patient, and thorough documentation of the pertinent positives and negatives are viable techniques to reduce your malpractice exposure. Here, he continues the discussion with other precautions you can take.

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Protecting Yourself Against Medical Malpractice Claims

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP We live and practice medicine in a litigious society. How, evolve into a patient whose ischemic bowel took two or three visits to correctly diagnose. For now, let’s focus on how urgent care providers can protect themselves when the odds are stacked against them. The first and most obvious answer is to not commit malpractice; more about that in a moment. The next most likely answer is for providers …

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Informed Consent and Treating Minors in Urgent Care

STATES HAVE ENACTED STATUTES, and courts have proffered an abundance of case law on the treatment of minors. There have been no reports of physicians being held liable for rendering emergent or urgent care to minors prior to obtaining parental consent. Still, informed consent issues surrounding the care and treatment of minors are often a source of confusion and are, at best, problematic. Essentially, competency to give consent is determined in the same way for …

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