Preventive Measures - Prevention At Practice

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How To Avoid Litigation

PREVENTION AT PRACTICE

The key steps are exercising reasonable skill and care in diagnosis and treatment, proper documentation of facts and legally valid informed consent.

The reasonable skill & care

There are 3 aspects of reasonable skill and care
1. Medical
2. Social
3. Legal

Medical aspect

First and foremost it is imperative for every doctor/hospital/nursing home to exercise reasonable skill and care expected of an average person with equivalent qualification and experience in similar circumstances.

Social aspect

We should always exhibit our reasonable skill and care to the patient/attendants/relatives, through expressions, body language, actions and discussions. These must be visibly palpable. We may be very sincere but failure to exhibit these gestures may lead to doubts in the mind of patients and their relatives.

Legal aspects

This includes documentation about exercising reasonable skill and care in consultation, diagnosis and treatment.
This can be done by making good clinical notes of findings on examination and treatment given. Where there is failure to follow instruction, refusal for nay investigation and failure to come for review on specified date should always be recorded in underlined way. These negative records act as important tool while defending our cases in court of law.