Legal Issues in Emergency Medicine

On any given day in the emergency department, the chance of confronting a medical-legal dilemma is significant. Emergency medicine and critical care practitioners may have to deal with malpractice claims, informed consent, protection of minors, resuscitation, operational issues and legal compliance requirements frequently. Substantial knowledge of the law as it pertains to their emergency care and acute care practice is essential. Legal Issues in Emergency Medicine is an invaluable resource for medical practitioners, legal practitioners and administrators in practice and in training. The book covers key topics that have direct relevance to day to day acute patient care practice. Each topic includes a clinical vignette, followed by a review of the legal controversy, current medical scientific evidence, case law and preventative solutions to the dilemma. This approach allows practitioner exposure to a wide variety of medical-legal problems, allowing a pre-emptive, informed approach to problem solving.

1. Abandonment in the emergency department; 2. Abandonment of patient by treating physician; 3. Admission; 4. Advance directives; 5. Advanced practice providers; 6. Adverse event disclosure; 7. Against medical advice (AMA); 8. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and education; 9. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and access to facilities; 10. Assault; 11. Assisted suicide; 12. Battery; 13. Bed boarding; 14. Brain death; 15. Care of children; 16. Code response; 17. Commitment; 18. Communication; 19. Competence and capacity; 20. Confidentiality; 21. Consultation; 22. Controlled substances; 23. Criminal charges; 24. Criminal acts; 25. Death certification; 26. Decision-making; 27. Difficult patient encounter; 28. Discharge instructions; 29. Disruptive provider behavior; 30. Do Not Resuscitate (DNR); 31. Documentation; 32. Domestic violence; 33. Driving impairment; 34. Drug and alcohol abuse; 35. Duty to warn; 36. Electronic health records (EHR); 37. Emergency consent; 38. Emergency Medical Services (EMS); 39. Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA); 40. Employment issues; 41. Expert witness; 42. Fitness for duty; 43. Frequent user; 44. Futility; 45. Geriatric abuse; 46. Good Samaritan; 47. Guidelines and protocols; 48. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) / Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH); 49. HIV; 50. Hospital medicine; 51. Immigrant care; 52. Impaired physician; 53. Indigent care; 54. Inflight emergencies; 55. Informal consultation; 56. Informed consent; 57. Insurance; 58. Intoxication; 59. Laboratory testing; 60. Left without being seen (LWBS) / left without treatment (LWOT) / elopment; 61. Malpractice claims; 62. Mandatory care; 63. Mandatory reporting; 64. Medical education; 65. Medical errors; 66. Medical records; 67. Medical Screening Exam (MSE); 68. Minor consent; 69. Missed illness and injury; 70. Multiple visits; 71. Nursing; 72. Operations; 73. Organ donation; 74. Overcrowding; 75. Pain control/medication; 76. Patient satisfaction; 77. Pediatric abuse; 78. Peer review; 79. Policy/procedure; 80. Pregnancy; 81. Prescription writing; 82. Privacy; 83. Professional boundary issues; 84. Protected health information (PHI); 85. Psychiatric care; 86. Referral; 87. Religion; 88. Research; 89. Restraint; 90. Resuscitation; 91. Service contract; 92. Sexual assault; 93. Social media; 94. Staff privileges; 95. Subpoena; 96. Substance abuse; 97. Suicide; 98. Telemedicine; 99. Telephone advice; 100. Third-party duty; 101. Transfer; 102. Translation, interpreting, and language issues; 103. Triage; 104. Unanticipated death; 105. Urgent care; 106. Violence; Glossary.

Rade B. Vukmir MD, JD is President of Critical Care Medicine Associates, a medical service consulting enterprise. This medical consulting firm has a twenty-seven year history of providing comprehensive medical, legal, educational and medical industry consultative service. Dr Vukmir is trained in emergency and critical care medicine and has a degree in law with health care specialization. His focus is on patient safety, risk management, operational efficiency and innovation in emergency and critical care medicine.