Case 4: Motor Vehicle Collision
This case is about a 48 year old man who was driving his car on a county road during rainy conditions. He lost control of his car, drove off the road, and hit an embankment. 911 was called, and both police and EMS responded to the scene. At the scene, the patient seemed confused, and […]
Case 3: Medical Review
Now that we have seen the initial case, the review of the documentation, and the outcome, we will explore medical learning points from this case. I’ll emphasis a few points that are relevant, and highlight some good #FOAMed resources and studies for further reading. Mixing opioids with benzodiazepines is a high-risk situation. One of the […]
Case 3: Documentation Review
This post will review the documentation of the doctor who treated this patient for a heroin overdose and discharged her several hours before her death. We’ll use the Documentation Rubric to grade the note. If you want an easy-to-use aid for writing good notes while you’re on your next shift, see the Documentation Template. The […]
Case 3: Legal Outcome
Edit: after further review of the legal documentation, it seems that the following post did not tell the entire story. Stay tuned for a re-write of the legal outcome! The physician involved in the case was ultimately dismissed, with no damages awarded. There was no jury trial for the doctor, this action was taken by […]
Case 3: Deposition
The family of the deceased patient brought a lawsuit against the doctor, hospital, and the county that oversees the juvenile detention facility, among others. Additional information during the court proceedings revealed that the patient may not have actually been fully recovered at the time of her discharge from the ED. Below is a description of […]
Case 3: Outcome
Following discharge, police took the patient to juvenile detention. She was checked into the facility. Staff checked on her every 15 minutes. Around 1:45am she was noted to be apneic and pulseless. Staff began CPR and called 911. EMS run sheet is listed below: Unfortunately, the information above is the extent of the medical record […]
Case 3: Overdose
Special thanks to Jeremy Faust (@jeremyfaust) for peer review of this month’s case. This case is about a 17-year-old young woman who was using heroin one evening with a friend. She became unresponsive, stopped breathing, and the friend called 911. Her friend attempted to help her by putting her in an ice cold bath and […]
Medical Review
This case is every EM doctor’s worst nightmare. The presentation is very subtle and the patient has no obvious signs of underlying emergency until very late in the disease process. The outcome is tragic for the patient and his family. Spinal epidural abscess (SEA), while relatively rare, is one of the diseases with extremely high […]
Documentation Review
The purpose of this website is to improve doctor’s medical knowledge and documentation by reviewing real-life malpractice cases. This article will review the documentation of the physician who was sued. There are three goals of documentation: defensibility, continuity of care, and billing. This post will focus primarily on the defensibility aspect of documentation. I have created a Documentation Rubric that will help […]
Legal Outcome
The patient and his wife brought a lawsuit against both of the doctors who saw the patient and discharged him, their employer, and several unnamed defendants. There was initial discussion of a settlement, but presumably the parties could not agree. Therefore, a court date was set. 3 days prior to the trial starting, the parties […]