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What can doctors do to protect themselves against lawsuits?

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The emergence of electronic medical records (EMR) is seen by some as a means of protection because these types of medical records have information easily organized and assessable. Previously, a physician might have to flip through many pages in a paper chart to see what medications the patient is taken currently or has taken in the past. With EMR, the information is readily and quickly available with a simple “click”. An entry in one part of the EMR, such as ordering a medicine, triggers an automatic entry in other crucial areas of the paperless chart. Even better, there is software that will alert the physician to incompatibility between medicines. If the patient has a drug allergy, such as to penicillin, and the doctor tries to prescribe a penicillin-based antibiotic, then the software will not allow the physician to do so. All of these aspects of EMR help physicians practice better medicine and avoid potential lawsuits. On the other hand, if a doctor has been negligent and tries to cover his tracks in an EMR, any change of documentation will be noted on the actual date. For example, if a doctor tries to amend notes from an office visit three months earlier, the amendment will be dated on the date the amendment was made, not on the date of the original office visit.

Other means of protecting against malpractice includes a very intentional effort to have good communication with patients. The doctor may ask a series of questions worded in various ways to determine the level of the patient’s understanding about his or her care or prognosis. In a similar vein, communication among the patient’s team of healthcare professionals must be excellent. Conflict can occur, even in emergency situations as popular medical dramas like to portray. Conflict management skills must be employed and protocol must be followed in such tense and often potentially life-threatening situations. Legal documents like advanced directives and informed consent documents are also helpful tools to help insure that communication is clear between the patient and physician. Some medical practices create strict protocols to treat certain types of difficult medical situations, such as asthmatic patients. Doctors must continually work to be in the know in their profession. For most parts of the US, a certain number of conferences and other educational experiences are required on a yearly basis in order to maintain a medical license, but the amount of outside reading and self-education is really up to the physician.

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