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Not totally done reading this all but.... Wait ... A healthy appearing kid with normal vital signs has new symptoms A WEEK LATER and then has massive PE 5 additionally days after that, and it's the fault of the ED from 11 days ago? I saw a wonky EKG for sure, but it doesn't seem material to the case beyond "maybe that should be investigated more" but CTPE likely isn't that investigation.![]()
Ehhh... Patient didn't have a prothombotic disease. Patient's relative did. Unless I missed something, this was a family history. I know its famously called "hereditary antithrombin deficiency", but there wasnt any actual confirmation that he had it (either knowingly or unknowingly).This was not a cut and dry case. I would never call this gross negligence, but there is a legitimate case for simple negligence.
This was a patient who had a prothrombotic disease (at least initial strains) who then developed new onset pleuritic chest pain. He had a wonky EKG that was ignored and never had any lab testing done.
would it have mattered? Every specialist, even the ones for the plaintiff, basically agreed that he wouldn't have found the blood clot because it almost certainly didn't exist 11 days before his death. I get the argument for "they should have done a work up on that EKG" because they should have - in isolation. But then the next question becomes "to what end." Because it wasn't going to find a PE that wasn't there yet but eventually killed him. Is the goal just to show that you take abnormal EKGs seriously in people where their abnormal EKG is (likely) not related to their cause of death? It would really only serve to retrospectively make your defense in court look better, but not change the patient outcome I would think. Its just MMQBing knowing a bad outcome happened and working backwards from there. If we knew that we would be the last person to see x patient before they died of y disease, we would run z test (even if z test would have been negative given the specifics of how y did them in). As my post said, the kid died of a massive PE that was minimally symptomatic for (i forget how many) days.... then still minimally symptomatic for 7 more days. Then maybe finally made itself known. Then was asymptomatic again for 5 more days before making itself known one last time for the CV collapse. Massive PEs dont do that and both the defense and prosecution agreed on that.I’m hesitant to use the PERC score on Covid patients. This patient at the very least warranted a d-dimer and a troponin.
I think they did and the plaintiff rejected. IIRC at least.I would have tried to settle this case if the plaintiff would accept a reasonable offer.
I mean. Yeah. I agree here.Btw this is why I hated dealing with Covid back in 2020-2022. It caused pleurisy because of its predilection to affect the peripheral lungs, but it also caused thrombotic events. And it was never clear how to accurately the decision rules applied.
For anyone learning from this case, optimal care was not met, I’m 50/50 on whether SOC was met.
caused thrombotic events. And it was never clear how to accurately the decision rules applied.
For anyone learning from this case, optimal care was not met, I’m 50/50 on whether SOC was met.
This was not well-known at that time and that point is even made by the defense hematologist.Did we know this 09/14/2020? I forget. I am not sure we knew what SOC was for COVID on 09/14/2020.
We had a new standard of care weekly.Did we know this 09/14/2020? I forget. I am not sure we knew what SOC was for COVID on 09/14/2020.
Part of the hematologist’s testimony is that Covid was not recognized as an independent prothrombotic risk factor at that time.Did we know this 09/14/2020? I forget. I am not sure we knew what SOC was for COVID on 09/14/2020.
CDC did come out with very regular updates on SOC guidelines and recommendations as information was evolving (last time I reviewed these was 2 years ago for a case, hopefully they're still all accessible if needed). The guidelines mostly involved determining universal definitions such as what defined severe covid, the role of various medications and treatments, etc. At this point, the prothrombotic nature of the disease was known but iirc the guidelines only really addressed inpatient care, when to empirically treat, and what appropriate VTE ppx was. There was not a consensus and just a lot of suggestions with acknowledgment of the limits of our knowledge. Brief search of ACEP did turn up the following regarding the understanding in September 2020:Did we know this 09/14/2020? I forget. I am not sure we knew what SOC was for COVID on 09/14/2020.
My greatest frustration with the pulmonary embolism rule out criteria is that it cannot rule out pulmonary embolism.
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When the PERC Rule Fails
When the PERC Rule Fails: Pitfalls and caveats on the application of the Pulmonary Embolism Rule-out Criteria (PERC) to assess whether a patient has a PE.www.aliem.com
agree the note was great.That’s a reasonable ass note. **** this game.
agree the note was great.
That ekg was abnormal.
Why order ekg if you are t going to act on it?
That being said, this was not negligence.
Also, is there no responsibility for patient to come back in for reassessment if increasing sob and syncope. Seems like there was plenty of time for patient to catch this and death was not proximate to initial visit
Yeah the partial workup did not help the doc. Note was pretty good though, even included time specific follow up & return precautions.
Gross negligence though? "a high degree of carelessness or reckless disregard for the safety of others, demonstrating a conscious and voluntary disregard for the need to use reasonable care."
Yeah, seems like a stretch.
This case also brings up how AMAs/shared decision making does not help you in a court. Patient didn't follow the docs documented advice (return if something changes).
It wasn't posted in the report, but it was evidently in a "conservative" state.I didn’t see which state this was in? Anyone know.
It's just obnoxious the entire thread here is like: "oh, yeah, I've never heard of this specific EKG association with PE, but obviously *something* is going on" where the legal standard is supposed to be "average physician" (say 15th to 85th percentile).
So tired of seeing a "perfect care" standard.
EKG not in PERC. Could argue gestalt and/or Wells wasn’t low risk…but also EKG not included in those either, right?It would be pretty easy to find an expert to say that this is an abnormal EKG and, in the setting of chest pain and shortness of breath, is concerning for a PE and they'd be right. In order to use PERC, they've got to be low risk. You can't have this EKG and be low risk. Nonetheless, tough case.
If you sent the EKG to Dr. Smith's EKG blog with just the chief complaint, I bet a PE would be incredibly high on his differential.
As you mentioned, it needs to be low risk (<15% pre-test probability). If someone has chest pain, shortness of breath, and an EKG that could be indicative of right heart strain, I’m not sure I’d call that low risk and PERC wouldn’t even be applicable. I agree this is tough case and not gross malpractice and, as with most bad cases, it’s easy to look in hindsight.EKG not in PERC. Could argue gestalt and/or Wells wasn’t low risk…but also EKG not included in those either, right?
Ultimately not an egregiously wrong or subpar practice demonstrated by the doc in this case. Certainly not a slam dunk case. Reasoning wasn’t unsound. An unfortunate miss. Very scary that this is the outcome for imperfection.
It's just obnoxious the entire thread here is like: "oh, yeah, I've never heard of this specific EKG association with PE, but obviously *something* is going on" where the legal standard is supposed to be "average physician" (say 15th to 85th percentile).
So tired of seeing a "perfect care" standard.
You can document that if there are other clinical findings to suggest the cause. If somebody has wheezing, productive cough suggestive of bronchitis, etc., then yeah, it's ok to document that if you document the other findings.Also, while I agree that there was no standard of care breach, who the hell is documenting “short of breath with exertion” and then discharging a patient with just an EKG?
If I’m already planning to discharge that patient, that phrase is not getting anywhere near my chart regardless of whether it came out of the patient’s mouth. That’s like documenting “tearing chest pain radiating to my back” and discharging with just an EKG”, or discharging “rebound abdominal tenderness” with just a KUB, or “worst headache of my life” with just a migraine cocktail.
Either ignore the comment, or work it up, but your charts shouldn’t be court transcriptions of what patients complain of.
I think the majority of us would be fine. But there are a handful of power hungry or sociopathic dirt bags that would still make a bad name for docs. In all specialties. I think it's just a function of the human condition, but most of us can control and suppress it.What would be the downside to every healthcare system having sovereign immunity? Patients can still sue and get reparations. Medical boards or other entity of peers can reprimand doc if deemed egregious or dangerous on case-by-case basis. This place (USA) is ****ed.
The argument here isn't whether it's a case worth review – though we still only have a limited set of information – but that ol' "standard of care" issue. There are a lotta very average docs out there who wouldn't be keeping up on the web, podcasts, etc., just getting their CME at ski conferences and LLSAs and plowing through the minimum. The more we sit here and claim this doc made a bonehead mistake, the less protected we all are, and the more absurd the overtesting culture and expectations will become.I will still say that at least 50% of doctors would have made this mistake (and even if they hadn’t there’s no guarantee they would have found a PE or had a different ultimate outcome), but please realize for teaching purposes this was still a true mistake and fallacy within the realm of standard of care.
People still want their pound of flesh when they're pi$$ed. If they can't get anything via the civil route, they may go after you with criminal charges. That's much worse as far as I am concerned.What would be the downside to every healthcare system having sovereign immunity? Patients can still sue and get reparations, just not drag down doc with the suit. Medical boards or other entity of peers can reprimand doc if deemed egregious or dangerous on case-by-case basis. This place (USA) is ****ed.
This is why I doubt that I will ever use one of those ai scribe tools.Either ignore the comment, or work it up, but your charts shouldn’t be court transcriptions of what patients complain of.
If something doesn't seem to fit, delete it.This is why I doubt that I will ever use one of those ai scribe tools.
This case and the ER note and subsequent lawsuit is why I don't spend 2 paragraphs writing what many believe to be protective medmal language in the chart. It's a waste of time. It doesn't protect you against aggressive lawyers.
If you have someone with chest pain and say "I considered dissection" or even sent a d-dimer and it was negative, and the pt dies of a dissection in the next few days, nobody is going to care about whether you considered dissection, or used a d-dimer, or used EBM, or did any of that crap.
I probably would have run some labs, troponin, and maybe a d-dimer (I don't know though) with that EKG. It's not normal for a 20 year old guy. Sad case. Absolutely no gross negligence at all.
Anyone claiming to know definitively what is and isn’t protective is FoS. We have no data and only limited examples of cases that never made it past the medical record review stage due to certain case factors. All we have to go on is cases that made it to the point of a claim being filed, which is going to be a minority of cases, and is going to be a biased sample. There are way too many things that go into a single case to pinpoint one specific thing that prevented a claim from being filed.It won't help what test you do is all that matters but there was a case where a EM doctor was dropped from pending litigation on a subarachnoid case for saying they considered it but didn't order a CT head. It was on the expert witness substack website the plaintiff though didnt really want to pursue it
Curious…what happens to the doc here? Say they had $1M /$3M malpractice coverage. Are they stuck with the difference?![]()
Anyone claiming to know definitively what is and isn’t protective is FoS. We have no data and only limited examples of cases that never made it past the medical record review stage due to certain case factors. All we have to go on is cases that made it to the point of a claim being filed, which is going to be a minority of cases, and is going to be a biased sample. There are way too many things that go into a single case to pinpoint one specific thing that prevented a claim from being filed.
There are a million different ways people have burned themselves in their note or workup. There are people that did nothing wrong and still had to pay out. There are people that have wrote beautiful, defensible notes and still lost. The only thing that definitively prevents claims is not having bad outcomes which are unfortunately inevitable.
Nevertheless, I believe it is a third of EM docs that will never be named in their career, and the majority of EM physicians will have no more than 1 paid malpractice claim in the entirety of their career. This is why I spend little mental energy on writing perfectly defensible notes, and just focus instead on finishing them efficiently in a way that maximizes billing and prevents headaches from difficult patient encounters that I know will turn into complaints, which is going to be way more common than a lawsuit. Its why I have no problem roasting ridiculous patients in notes so I never have to get a phone call from hospital admin or my medical director about a patient claiming I’m Satan when my note gives no indication of an unpleasant encounter. I’ll take the 1 in 100,000 chance (chance of losing a malpractice claim/number of patients seen in a career) this patient ends up successfully suing me.