As emergency medicine physicians, we are often in the position of screening for and diagnosing abuse and neglect in childhood…
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A 25-year-old woman with a past medical history of anxiety presents to the emergency department with right sided chest pain. She describes approximately two hours prior to arrival, she tripped in the bathroom while bathing her child, striking the right side of her chest on the tub. She denies head strike or loss of consciousness, shortness of breath or abdominal pain…
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A 15-year-old female presents to your emergency department with her mother. She is tearful and withdrawn. She tells you that she was sexually assaulted by a 20 year old male acquaintance 2 days prior. She reports that she would like to report the assault and would like to have a forensic exam. She is having some vaginal bleeding and pain around her rectum. She admits to using alcohol and some marijuana on the night of the assault. She is unable to remember everything that happened and thinks her assailant may have put a drug in her drink…
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Despite being on the mind of nearly every emergency medicine (EM) provider, and impacting how we deliver care, the legal system and how it applies to the emergency department (ED) remains largely a black box for most physicians, fraught with hearsay, folklore, and anecdote--some of which carries weight, and some easily refuted. With that in mind, below is a review of some recent literature as it pertains to the medicolegal practice of EM, with the author’s take…
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Malpractice is a topic that is often avoided in medical training. We arguably spend more time learning to perform once-in-a-lifetime/never-in-a-lifetime procedures than we learn about something that is very likely to occur in our career. According to the American Medical Associations’ Physician Practice Information survey in 2007-2008, 75% of emergency physicians over the age of 55 years old reported having ever been sued. Additionally, 30.9% of emergency medicine respondents reported being sued at least two times, with 109 claims per 100 physicians who responded…
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