Expert Witness Risks

A New Emerging Modern Peril

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]

insurance-bookIn the past, a physician expert witness for the plaintiff was merely an opposing opinion by a learned and/or like colleague. Today, it is becoming a risk management minefield as the AMA and other groups are urging state medical licensing boards to police expert witnesses, which might require expert testimony be considered the practice of medicine.

The AANS

This seems especially true with the Rolling Meadows Illinois based American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS).

Feuding Members

Currently, a member of the AANS can file a complaint against any fellow member for testimony as either an expert witness for the plaintiff, or defense witness for the doctor. A committee of four then reviews the court records and requires the accuser to face the accused in a formal review. Sanctions range form three months to a year, to complete expulsion from the association. In the past twenty years, the program has reviewed 27 cases all involving plaintiff testimony. One led to expulsion and ten to suspension.

Assessment

Since 2001, the courts are beginning to take the AANS process seriously. After years of operations without strong legal backing, the program was upheld by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago by a neurosurgeon whom the group suspended in 1997. So always remember, if you testify falsely, or too far from the norm, you may be at risk.

Conclusion

And so your thoughts, opinions and comments are appreciated?

Speaker: If you need a moderator or a speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA – Editor and Publisher-in-Chief – is available for speaking engagements. Contact him at: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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Failure 2 Rescue

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Attention “Condition H” 

[Staff Reporters]

For the fifth straight year, an analysis of errors in our nation’s hospitals found that the most reported patient safety risk is a little-known, but always-fatal, problem called “failure to rescue.”

Definition

The term Failure-To-Rescue [FTR] refers to cases where hospital doctors, nurses or caregivers fail to notice symptoms, or respond adequately or swiftly enough to clinical signs, when a patient is dying of preventable complications in a hospital.

The situation is not new. The term “failure to rescue” was first coined in the early 1990s by Dr. Jeffrey H. Silber, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research [CHOPR]. He was looking for a way to characterize the matrix of institutional and individual errors that contribute to patient deaths.

Call ‘Condition H’

Today, to help mitigate the FTR problem, a growing numbers of hospitals across the country allow patients to speak up by activating ‘Condition H,’ a code that summons immediate help.

Assessment

In a Condition “H “alert, patients call the same emergency number that doctors and nurses use.

MORE: Before Code Blue: Who’s minding the patient? [Little-known ‘failure to rescue’ is most common hospital safety mistake.  www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24002334

Conclusion

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