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Full-Text Articles in Law
Should A Physician Apologize For A Medical Mistake? – The Controversy Over The Effectiveness Of Apology Law Statutes, Samuel D. Hodge, Jr.
Should A Physician Apologize For A Medical Mistake? – The Controversy Over The Effectiveness Of Apology Law Statutes, Samuel D. Hodge, Jr.
Cleveland State Law Review
There are two approaches that health care providers can pursue in handling a medical error. Is it better for a physician not to admit a mistake and aggressively defend the claim or apologize and try to amicably resolve the matter? There has been a growing movement for physicians to offer words of sympathy or to apologize for a medical mistake as a way of minimizing the impact of a medical error and reducing the chances of a malpractice claim. There are a number of benefits to this approach but critics maintain that an apology is a useless gesture with an …
Calling Dr. Love: The Physician-Patient Sexual Relationship As Grounds For Medical Malpractice - Society Pays While The Doctor And Patient Play, Scott M. Puglise
Calling Dr. Love: The Physician-Patient Sexual Relationship As Grounds For Medical Malpractice - Society Pays While The Doctor And Patient Play, Scott M. Puglise
Journal of Law and Health
This note examines "consensual" sexual relationships between non-mental health physicians and patients. More specifically, it examines whether such relationships ever amount to medical malpractice. Generally, a non-mental health physician would be liable under the rubric of medical malpractice only if the sexual relationship was commenced under the guise of "medical treatment." Recent cases, however, have expanded liability in certain circumstances when the physician-patient relationship has involved "counseling matters." "Counseling matters" describes talking to patients about their feelings, or discussing personal problems not necessarily related to their proposed treatment. Medical treatment supplemented by "counseling" purportedly requires greater scrutiny due to the …
A Proposal To Recognize A Legal Obligation On Physicians To Provide Adequate Medication To Alleviate Pain, Tonya Eippert
A Proposal To Recognize A Legal Obligation On Physicians To Provide Adequate Medication To Alleviate Pain, Tonya Eippert
Journal of Law and Health
This note seeks to show how the current practice among medical practitioners in the United States, by treating pain retroactively after it begins, is inadequate. Administering narcotics to patients on an "as needed" basis unnecessarily prolongs pain and suffering. A more effective approach, which is advocated by the Agency for Health Care Policy & Research (AHCPR), is to treat pain preventatively rather than retroactively. The myth that pain medication is addictive, and that physicians should therefore prescribe as little pain medication as possible, is just that, a myth. Patients are suffering pain in today's hospitals and at home unnecessarily. Given …
Malpractice And Other Legal Issues Preventing The Development Of Telemedicine , Christopher Caryl
Malpractice And Other Legal Issues Preventing The Development Of Telemedicine , Christopher Caryl
Journal of Law and Health
Even though most Americans have not heard of telemedicine, the federal government is already actively involved in "developing a national telemedicine strategy." This note attempts to accomplish the following: demonstrate the urgent need of rural communities to gain access to adequate health care; clarify how telemedicine can provide enhanced health care to rural communities; and analyze the legal obstacles that have prevented, thus far, the most beneficial utilization of telemedicine. In particular, this note will examine how malpractice claims arising from telemedicine consultations might be resolved. An important issue to recognize at the outset, and one that consistently reappears throughout …
Doctors, Nurses And Superseding Cause: The Demise Of The Last In Time Defense, Charles Lattanzi
Doctors, Nurses And Superseding Cause: The Demise Of The Last In Time Defense, Charles Lattanzi
Journal of Law and Health
The question which naturally arises is whether the determination of superseding cause in this context is a question for the jury. Ohio case law has long held, as a matter of law, that the aggravation of an injury by the subsequent malpractice of a physician never breaks the chain of causation. Assuming that the original tortfeaser was negligent and that his actions caused the original injury, the only question left for the jury is whether the plaintiff herself exercised reasonable care in seeking treatment by a qualified physician. This rule was affirmed and given its common appellation, "the subsequent tortfeasor …
The Nursing Profession In The 1990'S: Negligence And Malpractice Liability, Frank J. Cavico, Nancy M. Cavico
The Nursing Profession In The 1990'S: Negligence And Malpractice Liability, Frank J. Cavico, Nancy M. Cavico
Cleveland State Law Review
Since expanded responsibility portends increased liability, a thorough understanding of the law must be achieved for nurses' rights to be adequately protected and for nurses to be held properly accountable for their legal obligations. This work examines the legal rights, responsibilities, and particularly the potential legal liability of the nurse, in the contexts of modem nursing practice and current statutes and case law. The work focuses on one major aspect of the nurse's legal liability -the tort, or civil wrong, of negligence.
A New Predicament For Physicians: The Concept Of Medical Futility, The Physician's Obligation To Render Inappropriate Treatment, And The Interplay Of The Medical Standard Of Care, Eric M. Levine
Journal of Law and Health
Part II of this article discusses the concept of futility and reviews various proposed approaches to defining "futility". This article then shows how personal value judgments play an integral part in determining futility under virtually all of these approaches. Part II concludes that a decision that treatment is futile should not be based on the individual values of only the patient or physician under the shared decisionmaking model of the physician-patient relationship. Part III tackles the issue whether a physician must offer or continue treatment deemed "medically and ethically inappropriate." Part III first reviews common law doctrines governing the physician-patient …
Hospital Liability: Implications Of Recent Physician's Assistant Statutes, Daniel W. Coyne
Hospital Liability: Implications Of Recent Physician's Assistant Statutes, Daniel W. Coyne
Cleveland State Law Review
New methods must be devised to increase the efficient use of the available supply of physicians. "Among the innovations being tried with physicians is the development of new disciplines involving assistants to physicians." Increasing utilization of returning medics from the armed forces is being undertaken to help relieve the civilian manpower shortage. The legal implications of these developments range from problems of licensure to considerations of vicarious liability for an assistant's negligence (malpractice) or for the negligence of the assistant's supervising physician. It is with a species of this latter problem that this paper will be concerned. But one ought …
Malpractice Actions Without Expert Medical Testimony, William P. Gibbons
Malpractice Actions Without Expert Medical Testimony, William P. Gibbons
Cleveland State Law Review
Fear of malpractice actions against them is causing physicians to "run scared." Some physicians now say that they feel that the threat of legal action has materially altered the practice of medicine. Defensively, some medical doctors say that they are ordering additional X-rays and lab tests, just to have them on record. Others say they are just plain afraid to try new techniques and diagnostic treatments because of the specter of a malpractice action. Innovative techniques carry additional risks, and some doctors admit that in some risky situations they merely do what will keep them out of trouble rather than …
Standard Of Care Of Medical General Practitioners, Milton Oppenheim
Standard Of Care Of Medical General Practitioners, Milton Oppenheim
Cleveland State Law Review
The law takes into account such matters as differences in various schools or systems of medicine, the state of medical acumen and knowledge, the established mode of practice, the locality, and conditions of practice. To reach a logical standard for physicians, and especially for that segment of the profession designated as "the general practitioner," various requirements are recognized by the law. Some courts insist that the degree of care and skill shall be commensurate with the advanced state of the science at the time of rendition of the service. This concept of the amount or degree of scientific medicine must …
Anesthesiology And The Law - In The Long View, Carl E. Wasmuth
Anesthesiology And The Law - In The Long View, Carl E. Wasmuth
Cleveland State Law Review
Anesthesiology is the youngest of the medical specialties. Born of surgical parents, it was nurtured through its infancy by well-meaning and dedicated physicians. Even now this specialty is one of the most litigated fields of medicine, rivaling radiology, surgery, and plastic surgery. This, however, is at best a dubious distinction. Considering the nature of the specialty, one can easily understand the reason. In the hands of the anesthesiologist rests the life of every patient undergoing a surgical operation.
Standards Of Care In Anesthesiology, Carl E. Wasmuth
Standards Of Care In Anesthesiology, Carl E. Wasmuth
Cleveland State Law Review
Diplomates of the American Board of Anesthesiology must meet the rigid requirements of this specialty. Anesthesiologists in all sections of the country must meet the same requirements. Hence, the anesthesiologist in a small town is as well qualified as the anesthesiologist practicing in a large city. With this basic premise in mind, it is not difficult, therefore, to set down the medical standards of care in anesthesiology - which in turn determine the legal standards of care in this specialty.