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Are residents liable for lawsuits
Are residents liable for lawsuits for reports that the attending has signed off on with no changes made?
Taking solo call at night in my hospital has me worried since there is no attending in house. -
26 Replies
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You are theoretically responsible but that has never happened before seeing as you likely have no significant assets it would not be worth pursuing
Your question is kinda the wrong question tho. If theres nothing my to change then you theoretically should have read it right. The question would be if you say one thing and the attending disagrees or says something else and then the patient is harmed because of your read
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A trainee is absolutely responsible.
Court rulings over the last couple of decades have shifted the legal treatment of residents from a low standard akin to the one used for medical students to the same standard as that of a reasonable physician practicing in their specialty.
You can and will be named and deposed in night call cases in which you render a preliminary interpretation and the attending radiologist signs off the case.
Generally, there is no value in actually seeking a *judgement* from the resident physician though. They go after the attending and the institution (who provides insurance for the trainees) usually alleging lack of supervision.
I know of multiple legal cases that have involved resident trainees that I personally know … and know of at least one that has been deposed long after departing the hospital and having set up in private practice in another state.
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As for attending supervision overnight…. the attending does not legally have to be in house. They have to be immediately accessible for supervision.
So if there is no attending on call and available that is not only a risk for you but also an institutional medicolegal risk.
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In your first 2 years of residency I do not believe you will be named in lawsuits. Beginning third year you are insured and therefore a potential target. Perhaps there is some variability state to state but this is how it works where I am.
In addition to on call cases you can be sued for any other case you have read. Even if you read a case under attending supervision and they agree with your report you can be sued. In such a case the hospitals lawyers will argue that you should be dropped and the attending would accept any liability, but that does not mean you will be dropped.
Remember that the system is designed by the personal injury lawyers so basically they can do whatever they want. A good personal injury lawyer will go after anyone and everyone they can for as much as they can and inconvenience them all as much as possible to encourage a larger settlement.
I speak from experience.
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Quote from fumoney
Remember that the system is designed by the personal injury lawyers so basically they can do whatever they want. A good personal injury lawyer will go after anyone and everyone they can for as much as they can and inconvenience them all as much as possible to encourage a larger settlement.
I speak from experience.
This is depressing. Good thing you have FU money. -
Got named and deposed intern year on a medicine floor case I had little to no involvement in other than my name was too legible in the chart on an early H/P note. Got dismissed but still have to report on all credentialing and medical licensing documents from now until the end of time. Wonderful system, right.
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I knew a first or second year resident that was sued for a bad contrast reaction. Eventually I think she got dropped from the case but it was emotionally distressful.
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Plaintiffs attorneys love residents. Instead of the measly 1 or 2 mil that the attending has for insurance, now they have access to the 80-100mil that the hospital carries. Biggest payout I have seen for a resident (neurosurg) has been 10m.
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Quote from fw
Plaintiffs attorneys love residents. Instead of the measly 1 or 2 mil that the attending has for insurance, now they have access to the 80-100mil that the hospital carries. Biggest payout I have seen for a resident (neurosurg) has been 10m.
What if the case get dragged out 3-4 yrs down the line, when I will be an attending, what ramifications will that have?
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Quote from gastorads2015
What if the case get dragged out 3-4 yrs down the line, when I will be an attending, what ramifications will that have?
From an insurance standpoint it will the policy you had in residency.
But depending on the final result you may have to provide detailed information about the event each time you credential at an institution etc
It is more likely to be just a PITA than an actual career limiter.-
These are also vast anomalies and tens or hundreds of thousands of radiology residents have completed residency and done independent call without being sued.
Lets keep the fear factor in check a little
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Disagree with you IR27. It is a very real issue. Maybe in some states it isnt so bad, but plenty of states where lawyers are eager to go after residents. Again, I speak from experience. Obviously it will only happen to a minority of residents, but for the ones it does happen to, it is a huge PITA. Residents are likely to have moved by the time the litigation arises, which just makes them a more palatable target for the lawyers since they know that forcing the person to travel, miss work, etc is a huge burden on them and again incentivized settlement.
On the other hand I do agree nobody should stress out too much about it. It is very unlikely regardless of the outcome that a lawsuit is going to impact ones career in any way other than to be a huge pita and emotional stress for a few years. Obviously being sued has nothing to do with whether one is a good doctor or not in most cases, and is mostly just bad luck.
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Its a real issue but you have someone clearly that is fearful about their situation and as you said in your second paragraph this happens to a minority of residents and would likely materialize years down road and only be a PITA with no real effect on career.
Op should just focus on doing a good job , giving every study their full attention and communicate urgent/emergent findings. Really all one can do.
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Yes, agreed. We should all do our best and not obsess over the litigation issue.
I just dont want that to be confused with the concept that med Mal is no big deal. It is a huge problem and doctors should be fighting back against it.
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My comments were not meant to be a description of the rate or likelihood of litigation against residents
But if it does happen, Im just a resident is not going to matter to the lawyers.
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Quote from gastorads2015
What if the case get dragged out 3-4 yrs down the line, when I will be an attending, what ramifications will that have?
Every time you submit a medical license or medical staff application, your attorney will give you a status letter on the case. If its a single case, its not a big deal.-
Yes, the resident can be the only one named. The resident still has a sizable malpractice policy that can usually pay 500k. Seen it happen.
The resident can have a prelim, not calling something. The attending makes the right call hours later. But by then, the patient may be dead or neurologically compromised. A rare, but real scenario that can occur in cases like missed SMA occlusion, bowel ischemia, missed unstable spine fxs for example.
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Being a resident does not protect you. If you have any malpractice insurance, you are a target and will be named.
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Not all misses get litigated but residents do get sued. You have to dictate each case as best as you can and properly document your communications.
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Its all about a pathway to the biggest pockets. If plaintiffs attorneys can keep a resident in the suit to get to the hospital, they will. This is why you can do everything right as a resident and still get sued if theres a bad outcome, while an NP can be completely negligent but never get sued. Its all about how much $$$ there is to go after. (And then they wonder why the rate of burnout/moral injury in physicians has never been higher)
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I’m curious, but given that being named in a suit causes emotional harm as well as implications in terms of needing to be documented on all future credentialing and licensing applications, is there a role to countersue if you get named in a lawsuit for arguably frivolous reasons?
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Countersuits very rarely do anything except line the pocket of your lawyer who will not take a case like that on contingency.
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No. You basically cannot counter sue. I believe no doc has ever gotten much of anything from doing so. I read somewhere that judges see countersuits as obnoxious to the plaintiff. That pretty much says it all. Nobody seems overly concerned about whether frivolous lawsuits are obnoxious towards the doctor!
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good point and that is why many people hate the system here because of double standards
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Yes, the malpractice system is stacked against physicians. In some countries jury of your peers means other physicians, i.e. a medical board decides if there was a medical malpractice in the first place.
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Medical malpractice is essentially fixed income for lawyers
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A resident in my program, perhaps the BEST one, was named in a suit for a post-op spine. The group was a PP so the plaintiffs would not remove her from the suit because she was an employee of the hospital and they could then go after the big money from the hospital. If they dropped her, they could only go after the PP group. At least was what I was told. Sucks, because she was/is a fantastic radiologist and she has to carry that BS legal declaration for the rest of her career.
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