Practice pitfalls

Russell G. Thornton, JD

A physician recently told me that while acting as an expert on medical-legal matters can be stressful (particularly the deposition part), expert review work was beneficial to his practice: he could see first hand the situations that led to health care liability claims and then proactively avoid or limit those situations and, hopefully, avoid future claims. All health care providers might benefit from a brief overview of some relatively common situations seen in litigation. Here are some scenarios that we frequently see as the basis of claims.