I want to address a question posed by some friends who are doctors; “What can I do to avoid getting sued for malpractice?”.
Plain and simple, I cannot guarantee that you will not get sued for malpractice if you’re a busy physician here in the City of Chicago. Unfortunately, that’s part of what goes on in the world.
I will tell you that most malpractice cases that we see in our office come about because something unfortunate happened to the patient or family member, and the family simply wants to get a question answered.
Too often, the doctor or the hospital staff are afraid to speak with the family and answer a simple question. As a result, the family turns to a law firm to have that question answered.
In the majority of cases that come to us, we do not find malpractice and the case is not pursued. But, if the question had simply been answered by the physician or staff -member at the onset of the problem, the inquiry, and potential lawsuit could have been avoided.
So, I would suggest to all my friends who work in the medical field – answer your patient questions, even if there has been a bad result. Tell them the truth, because more often than not, there was no malpractice.
Simply answering a question can save a lot of headaches down the road.