Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J Martello.
A contract exists, either expressed or implied, between the physician and the patient. If a duty of care was owed by the physician to the patient and the standard of care was violated, resulting in the patients' injury, then the damages, injury, or loss the patient suffered can be compensated. This article reviews the elements of a medical malpractice claim and the factors that may lead to such a claim.
An overview of very real considerations for the practicing plastic surgeon with regards to potential areas of risk and liability have been presented. As one can see, the hospital environment presents many potential sources of liability that can involve the attending or consulting plastic surgeon.
Most malpractice claims are based on failures of communication and patient selection criteria, not on technical faults. This article examines the psychological aspects of plastic surgery and then discusses the role of effective communication as a claims prevention technique. The authors delineate general characteristics of trouble-prone patient groups so that the surgeon may distinguish those patients whose body image and personality characteristics make them simply unsuitable for the elective aesthetic surgery that they seek.
This article deals primarily with the office consultation involving a new patient. The consultation lays the groundwork for the physician/patient relationship in a number of ways. The authors consider the objective and subjective assessments which take place between the doctor and the patient and offer advice on how to decide on a course of treatment with the patient.
In the language of medical liability, no concept has received as much misinterpretation as "informed consent." In the last five years, most medical liability carriers have experienced a significant increase in claims that allege failure to obtain a proper informed consent prior to treatment. The authors discuss forensic testing of the medical record and offer recommendations for record-keeping. These suggestions, if followed, will help establish the reliability of the record as an accurate reflection of the treatment of the patient in any given case.
A positive, well-prepared deposition may be the best defense in a medical malpractice suit that ultimately may change the course of a physician's career. In this article, the author explains the purpose, format, and overall significance of the deposition and offers advice on how best to handle it. The author enumerates the steps that the defendant should take before, during, and after the deposition.
Knowledge, preparation, and planning can greatly increase a physician's chances of success in a medical malpractice trial. In this article, the author presents an overview of the many questions that must be addressed in any medical negligence case in order to determine the many possible strategies that the physician and his or her defense attorney must consider. The author addresses the strategies of mediation, arbitration, settlements, and trial.
The authors examine several cases in which malpractice claims are the result of either poor documentation, lack of preoperative photographs, inadequate informed consent, or poor patient-selection criteria. In each case, they discuss what errors took place and the end result of the claim. The cases presented in the article are intended to help readers avoid potential medical malpractice traps in the future and be diligent with office documentation.
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During depressive episodes, patients show both qualitative and quantitative changes in how information is processed. Depressed patients appear to use weak or incomplete encoding strategies to organize and transform events to be remembered. This makes these events less memorable. If the depressed patient is provided organization and structure, then learning-memory deficits are not apparent. Disruptions in arousal-activation in depression can account for these cognitive impairments.