Charles A. Pilcher is an emergency physician and editor, Medical Malpractice Insights - Learning from Lawsuits.

Teen dies when blood culture protocol botched: What can we learn from this tragedy?

Conditions and Diseases
July 25, 2022

It’s 4 a.m. when a 17-year-old awakens at home with severe left shoulder pain that his worried parents call 911. By the time he reaches the emergency room (ER), he has pain all the way to his wrist.

“Any recent injuries?” asks the doctor.

“Yeah, about three days ago, I was lifting about 200 pounds at the gym and noticed that my shoulder was really sore.”

When questioned further, he admits that he’d …

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Teen dies when blood culture protocol botched: What can we learn from this tragedy?

tPA is the standard of care for stroke but with significant risks

Conditions and Diseases
October 17, 2011

Under current guidelines from the American Stroke Association, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA, commonly known as a “clot buster” drug) should be administered within 3-4.5 hours of “last seen normal” – and 1 hour of patient arrival – to potentially ameliorate a new onset stroke.  (“Last seen normal” means exactly what it says. A patient who went to bet at 10 PM and awoke with slurred speech at 6 AM was …

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tPA is the standard of care for stroke but with significant risks

How a doctor reviews cases for both plaintiff and defense attorneys

Physician
September 7, 2011

Early in my career, a local defense attorney working with my hospital would occasionally ask me to review a case in which another physician client of her firm was the defendant. As Medical Director of Evergreen Hospital Emergency Department, I was comfortable with hospital records, knowing where to look in a record for information – both recorded and not recorded – that either helps or hurts a case. I found …

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How a doctor reviews cases for both plaintiff and defense attorneys

Talk to your patients before sending them home from the ED

Patient
August 26, 2011

So you’re not having a heart attack like your wife thought. That’s the good news. But what is wrong, what did cause that pain, and what should you do from here on out?

That’s the purpose of discharge instructions, and it’s not enough for the ED staff to just print out some forms, say “sign here,” and send you on your way.

What constitutes good discharge instructions, and why are they critical …

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Talk to your patients before sending them home from the ED

Pro-actively improve quality, rather than reacting to liability concerns

Physician
June 16, 2011

Over the past year I have been involved in many discussions with doctors, healthcare executives, elected officials, plaintiff and defense attorneys and others about healthcare reform. Bottom line: There is no consensus what the future holds.

There is no question that reform is necessary to avoid absolutely bankrupting the country. However, the recent legislation is a work in progress, not yet an achievement. A change in congressional leadership could derail, …

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Pro-actively improve quality, rather than reacting to liability concerns

Diagnostic errors and their role in patient safety

Physician
March 31, 2011

American Medical News published an informative essay by Kevin B. O’Reilly on December 13, 2010, about errors in diagnosis and why doctors make them.

According to Gordon Schiff, MD, associate director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, “The problem of diagnostic errors has gotten short shrift in the broader patient safety movement.” The article focused on …

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Diagnostic errors and their role in patient safety

Malpractice attorneys shouldn’t rely on clinical guidelines

Physician
January 26, 2011

The Institute of Medicine has been an advocate for clinical guidelines for many years.

Although the value of guidelines has never really been established, both clinicians and medical malpractice attorneys often want to ascribe greater credibility to them than they deserve. The issue was raised again in the past few months and I review it briefly here.

A few years ago Dr. Robert Ewart discussed the ethics of using guidelines to screen patients …

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Malpractice attorneys shouldn’t rely on clinical guidelines