Case 12: Lawsuit

The patient’s family was shocked by his unexpected death. They reached out to a law firm, and discussed the case with an attorney. After reviewing the situation, the attorney and the family came to an agreement to proceed with a lawsuit. The law firm would take 40% of any financial award, in addition to their […]

Case 12: Outcome

The patient was taken from the ED to his hospital room. What happens next is best described through the legal documents that would later be filed. It was early evening when the patient arrived to the floor, and the on-call cardiologist was still in the building. He was therefore able to see the patient promptly. […]

Case 12: Hospitalist Note

The hospitalist was paged and discussed the case with the EM physician. She came to the ED and took her own history and physical exam. The hospitalist’s plan is shown here. She planned to trend his cardiac enzymes, and also consulted the on-call cardiologist. The patient was kept NPO, IV fluids continued, and stool cultures […]

Case 12: Disposition

After reviewing the results, the ED doctor admitted the patient to the hospitalist. The hospital had a teaching service for an internal medicine residency, as well as a non-teaching service. The teaching service was called initially, but was full, therefore the patient was admitted to the non-teaching service. The EM physician’s differential diagnosis prior to […]

Case 12: Testing and Results

The physician ordered lab tests including a CBC, CMP, troponin, CK, PT and PTT. Abnormal results are listed in bold. The results are shown below. An EKG was also ordered. The actual tracing was not included in the court documents, but the physician’s interpretation is included here. The physician was most concerned about abdominal aortic […]

Case 12: Chest Pain

This month’s case is about a 61-year-old man who presents to an Emergency Department. The listed chief complaint is chest pain, but the following notes from nurses and the physician indicate that the presentation was more complicated. The triage nurse documented the chief complaint as chest pain, but later documented that the patient “denies chest […]

Case 11: Documentation Review

The documentation from the patient’s initial visit will be reviewed. In order to provide a standardized analysis, a Documentation Rubric is used to assess the documentation in each MedMalReviewer case. The most important part of the note for malpractice cases is the medical decision-making (MDM). While the rest of the note is important for billing […]

Case 11: Medical Review

Chest Pain: No Second ChancesThis case perfectly illustrates the risks involved in chest pain work-ups, especially when discharging patients. Whenever a patient is discharged from the ED, the physician must consider what will happen to the patient if their assessment is wrong. What will happen if their condition unexpectedly worsens? A good EM doctor will […]

Case 11: Lawsuit Outcome

The case was ultimately settled before going to trial. As is nearly always the case, the settlement is confidential and only known to the parties involved. Continue to the next page to see the medical review of this case! If you’re interested in checking out more medical malpractice cases, download the Legal Case Review eBook.

Case 11: Expert Witnesses

As shown in the plaintiff’s Amended Complaint, an expert witness was hired to offer an opinion about the alleged negligence of the doctor. In the rest of this post, excerpts from both the plaintiff and defense expert witnesses are shown. Their opinions are shown alternating back and forth, in order to clearly communicate their respective […]