Malpractice law and emergency department medicine

Abstract

This article summarizes current law pertaining to medical malpractice litigation, focusing on the special medical/legal problems encountered by the emergency physician and defining the applicable legal standard of care. The discussion includes the issues of informed consent, documentation of emergency room treatment, advice and instruction to patients, legal abandonment, and the implications of the failure of an attending physician to authorize admission of an emergency department patient contrary to the advice of the emergency physician. The requirements for countersuits against lawyers and patients for the initiation of frivolous or malicious lawsuits is summarized.