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Alright, so I'm doing yet another EM rotation. It's fun, its interesting, my bosses are great, and the hours aer insanely short. However one thing that's driving me nuts: when I ask why we're managing a patient in a certain way, there is approximately a 50% chance that the answer is going to be 'lawyers'. Why are we giving that virus an antibiotic? "well it looks bad legally if..". Why are we doing cardiac enzymes on a healthy 18 year old with obvious musculoskeletal pain? "Well, in a lawsuit, you need to be able to say...". Its non-stop.
This is a common theme I've seen at the three ERs I've rotated through. There seems to be a persistent fear of litigation that guides management, much more than any other profession in Medicine. This seems strange to me. After all I've rotated with all the professions that work with babies, who are also sued alot, but I barely ever heard Neonatologists or even Obstetricians (the most/worst sued) mention lawyers when explaining their management. I know ER is up there near the top in terms of volume of lawsuits, but they seem to be way over the top in their response.
Thoughts? Do you think this is true, and if so why are ER docs so much more legally minded?
This is a common theme I've seen at the three ERs I've rotated through. There seems to be a persistent fear of litigation that guides management, much more than any other profession in Medicine. This seems strange to me. After all I've rotated with all the professions that work with babies, who are also sued alot, but I barely ever heard Neonatologists or even Obstetricians (the most/worst sued) mention lawyers when explaining their management. I know ER is up there near the top in terms of volume of lawsuits, but they seem to be way over the top in their response.
Thoughts? Do you think this is true, and if so why are ER docs so much more legally minded?