All humans are bound to make mistakes sometimes. My question is when doctors make a mistake that was careless and avoidable but nonetheless occurred because it just so happened that on his millionth lab test reading or surgery, he/she read a number wrong or caused arrhythmia with a catheter, what will happen to him/her? Eg. sued for half of his/her assets, have his/her licence revoked for 5 years, nothing because it is bound to happen every millionth time?
What happens to a doctor when he/she makes a mistake?
- Thread starter nychila
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Sued. But that is what medical malpractice insurance is for. Getting your license revoked is a matter of intent and consequence, I would assume.
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most often, nothing.
it depends on the mistake, how egregious it was, and how well/poorly the physician communicated it with family.
drop a lung with a CVL? explain to patient, put in the pneumodart/chest tube, admit. be M&M'd, usually that's the end of it.
cannulate the carotid? explain to patient, hold pressure/call vascular, document, end of it.
miss something important and discharge the patient? call them back, explain, communicate.
order wrong drug to wrong patient? explain what happened, communicate.
The best thing you can do in these scenarios is directly communicate with patient and be honest.
The majority of medical errors will not significantly impact your career as a physician. However a pattern of negligent behavior and patient safety concerns will often result in probation from a hospital or revocation of privileges.
You have to be pretty outside the norm to have your license revoked for a medical mistake. Common reasons for license revocation: sleeping with patients, repeated drug abuse, medicare fraud, gross malpractice (ie, a family physician doing breast augmentation with only a nurse sedating resulting in a patient death, etc). Honest medical errors are expected and understood provided you communicate well and are otherwise a competent provider.
it depends on the mistake, how egregious it was, and how well/poorly the physician communicated it with family.
drop a lung with a CVL? explain to patient, put in the pneumodart/chest tube, admit. be M&M'd, usually that's the end of it.
cannulate the carotid? explain to patient, hold pressure/call vascular, document, end of it.
miss something important and discharge the patient? call them back, explain, communicate.
order wrong drug to wrong patient? explain what happened, communicate.
The best thing you can do in these scenarios is directly communicate with patient and be honest.
The majority of medical errors will not significantly impact your career as a physician. However a pattern of negligent behavior and patient safety concerns will often result in probation from a hospital or revocation of privileges.
You have to be pretty outside the norm to have your license revoked for a medical mistake. Common reasons for license revocation: sleeping with patients, repeated drug abuse, medicare fraud, gross malpractice (ie, a family physician doing breast augmentation with only a nurse sedating resulting in a patient death, etc). Honest medical errors are expected and understood provided you communicate well and are otherwise a competent provider.
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1) nothing or
2) patient terminates relationship with you and/or
2) complaint to the board and/or
3) request for settlement and/or
4) patient bad mouths you and/or
5) sued
Contrary to popular opinion most medical mistakes are never discovered, never result in any true morbidity or mortality and most often aren't litigated. The end result is quite variable.
2) patient terminates relationship with you and/or
2) complaint to the board and/or
3) request for settlement and/or
4) patient bad mouths you and/or
5) sued
Contrary to popular opinion most medical mistakes are never discovered, never result in any true morbidity or mortality and most often aren't litigated. The end result is quite variable.
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I assume you would need to do something like this to loose your license:
http://www.texasobserver.org/anatomy-tragedy/
http://www.texasobserver.org/anatomy-tragedy/
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This. Nice summary. I would just add
6) suspend or lose license (you really got to mess up to do this)
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I figured that would go under the complaint to the board but you're right that's a good addition.
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Anybody can sue you for anything, at any time, for any reasons. Literature demonstrates that nice doctors get sued/complained against far less than dinguses as you might imagine. State medical board complaints can be adjudicated in any number of ways, however most typically the infractions need to be grossly obvious and/or repetitive for anything of any consequence to actually happen (i.e. sleeping with your patients, verifiable drug abuse resulting in an adverse outcome, prescribing scheduled medications to self etc).
The vast majority of civil suits are thrown out pre-trial or settled out of court by the physician's malpractice agency, however for a suit to be successful in court the plaintiff is required to demonstrate all of the following: 1) that a clinical relationship/duty was established, 2) the physician deviated from standard of care duing the course of that relationship, 3) that deviation caused an injury and 4) quantifiable damages occured as a result of that injury.
The vast majority of civil suits are thrown out pre-trial or settled out of court by the physician's malpractice agency, however for a suit to be successful in court the plaintiff is required to demonstrate all of the following: 1) that a clinical relationship/duty was established, 2) the physician deviated from standard of care duing the course of that relationship, 3) that deviation caused an injury and 4) quantifiable damages occured as a result of that injury.
