Expert witness testimony in medical liability cases: American Pediatric Surgical Association position statement.
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The liability issues may involve some turf battles between the specialties because of the possibility of one specialty trying to institute lawsuits through patients against the other specialty in order to drive the competition out of business. Each cosmetic surgical procedure has liability issues particular to the surgery but there are many common issues that involve a number of different procedures. These include: Failure to maintain adequate patient rapport. Failure to give proper informed consent. Failure to obtain information on significant past medical history. Performing procedure not requested. Breaching the standard of care in the performance of the surgery or procedure. Failure to diagnose and treat a complication in a timely fashion. Expert witness misrepresentations. This paper analyzes the various aspects of liability in the plastic/cosmetic surgery field and attempts to aid the physician in preventing or resolving some of these problems.
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Critical care medicine was practiced informally during several years, specially during war periods. Nowadays it is, however, a fundamental part of health systems in which patients attain care facilities of increasing complexity in a cost effective manner, according to their needs. The importance of this discipline in Chile, during its 30 years of development, has progressively increased and at the present time, intensive care units represent up to 30% of the total number of beds in some hospitals. Even though these units require great budgets and many resources, their place and the role of physicians who work in them has not been recognized adequately by the national medical community. The present document presents the official position of the Chilean Society of Intensive Medicine on the general objectives of this discipline. It indicates the scope of action of the specialty and the role of intensive care physicians, their relationship with other specialties, their duties and responsibilities with their patients.
INTRODUCTION: The use of botulinum toxin injection therapy is soaring significantly today, with an ever-wider field of applications despite well-known side effects of the treatment. This article aims at analysing the medicolegal practices of practitioners who use this therapy, especially the information given to patients and finding a common practice for providing that information. METHODS: We sent a questionnaire to 340 practitioners who might use the therapy (physiatrists, neurologists, ophthalmologists, ENT specialists, plastic surgeons) working in hospitals and in physical therapy and rehabilitation centres in France. Besides mentioning the possible side effects of the therapy, the questionnaire focused on how such information was transmitted before the injection. RESULTS: Data collection and analysis were performed by use of a spreadsheet software programme. A total of 124 questionnaires were analysed. We did not analyse the items dealing with side effects. Sixty-five percent of the responders said they did not seek statutory authorisation for injections. Only 31% provided written, detailed information and 12% required a signed consent form. Complaints were rare, approximately 12%, were written or verbal, and were always dismissed. DISCUSSION: Side effects after botulinum toxin injection are clearly described in the medical literature. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for this product to be used therapeutically and only by experienced therapists who will carefully respect the product's standard rules of use and inform their patients to the best of their ability. Issuing a detailed letter of information describing all the side effects seems necessary. We suggest a model information letter such as that provided to the patients in our facility. CONCLUSION: Botulinum toxin is a very worthwhile product for numerous abnormalities but has side effects, often brief, at the site of the injection. Therefore it is our duty to inform patients effectively.
Currently, liability discussions are being dominated by AIDS and the legal problems associated with birth and death. The introduction of routine AIDS tests without the knowledge of those concerned is disputed heatedly and, in fact, may well constitute bodily assault and render those responsible liable to prosecution. In AIDS cases, the apparent breach of the Hippocratic oath of secrecy by Physicians can be justified on the grounds of both the extraordinary circumstances prevailing and conflicting duties. The transmission of AIDS could give rise to prosecution for causing bodily injury or manslaughter. The drawing up of a law to protect embryos is designed to establish legal constraints in the fields of reproduction and gene technology. In reframing section 168 StGB, which provides protection to the dead embryo, legislators assume that the head of a medical clinic is the lawful custodian of the corpse of a person who has died in his institution. This should help to resolve many of the problems arising from post-mortem examinations. The questions of euthanasia and medical assistance in cases of suicide were raised at the 1986 Conference of German Lawyers. Whereas medical treatment that could be considered as interference with the natural process of dying may be withdrawn in the case of irreversible terminal suffering, active euthanasia, i.e. the deliberate killing of a terminal patient, was rejected. With regard to noninterference in a suicide attempt by a third party, the free decision of the person wishing to commit suicide should be respected. In general, however, the maxim in dubio pro vita should be respected and where any doubt exists, an attempt should be made to save the person's life.
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The use of genetic profiling techniques to detect individuals with an increased susceptibility to heritable cancers has provoked recent legal interest in the duties of the attending physician and in the rights of patients and their families. In the current study specific prima facie and recently litigated cases are presented and explored to delineate the issues facing physicians and to illustrate the prerogatives of patients who are caught up in a heritable cancer enigma. Various courts have attempted to answer questions involving lawsuits in which incidents of breast/ovarian carcinoma and colon carcinoma have provoked claims of negligence against health care providers. Health care workers involved in the care of these patients have specific duties to these individuals. It would appear that physicians are being forced to assume the additional duty of delving into a patient's family history of cancer through multiple generations. This duty is followed by a responsibility to provide detailed counseling to those patients in whom such activity impacts the diagnosis and management of familial cancer.
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Nosocomial infections have always been considered as "unbearable" by patients and public opinion. Court decisions progressively evolved to a greater compensation until the 4 March 2002 law, "relative to the rights of patients and to the healthcare system quality" which set up a very specific protocol for liability and access to compensation, whether care is given in public or private practice. Furthermore, this law has determined new obligations concerning information of patients, especially concerning nosocomial infections which must be acknowledged by physicians.
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