Emergency medicine clinics of North America
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Emergency physicians are overwhelmed by the load of medical record documentation in the emergency department. This article reviews the important reasons for better documentation and today's increasing regulatory requirements in medical record documentation.
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This article presents an overview of several major legal issues in contemporary prehospital health care delivery and emergency medical services. It includes review and analysis of medical-legal issues in medical control; patient consent and treatment; modern emergency medical services communications; discussion of medical-legal concerns in regard to patient destination choice, diversion, and transfer; and an analysis of theories of recovery including a review of selected case histories.
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This article reviews medical-legal issues with regard to minors as they apply to the practice of emergency medicine. The topics of consent to treatment, refusal of care, child abuse, and medical malpractice are addressed. A working knowledge of these areas helps the emergency physician to avoid confusion, avoid delays in management, and maintain the safety of children.
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Clearly, a multitude of potential consent problems can exist for the emergency physician. It is difficult at times to balance the concepts of patient autonomy with the desire to provide optimal medical care. ⋯ Documentation of consent and refusal of treatment are critical for quality of patient care and legal liability reasons. Principles of what is good, "appropriate" legal consent usually follow from good medical care and strict concern for the patient's health and rights.
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This article analyzes past legal trends in emergency medicine with an effort to project those trends and current developments into future legal issues that will confront emergency physicians and emergency departments. Special emphasis is placed on insurance trends and professional liability insurance developments along with medical malpractice claims past, present, and future. Also discussed in this article is the health care industry environment and ways that it might affect future legal challenges for emergency medicine.