I asked him straight out whether he violated the basic standards of medical care. What do you think he said? Of course he said “No.” However, here is what I did first and then ultimately asked in a series of questions about whether he believed he violated good medical practices. WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS OF MEDICAL CARE? I asked him specifically what were the standards of care when treating a patient with this particular condition. “Doctor, in a patient who comes in with the following complaints, would you agree it is good medical practice to obtain a medical history? Would you agree its good medical practice to obtain a thorough history? Would you agree that it is appropriate for a doctor to obtain a detailed history from the patient? In a patient who presents with the following symptoms, would you agree that you must formulate in your own mind or on paper a differential diagnosis? You know that a differential diagnosis is a list of the most likely diagnoses in order of most likely to the least likely. Correct? And for each of those diagnoses, there are various diagnostic and clinical tests that must be performed in order to rule in or rule out each of those conditions. Correct? If your initial working impression is that the patient had this particular condition, would you agree it would be appropriate to obtain either x-rays or CAT scans or MRIs? Would you also agree that it would be good medical practice for the doctor to perform a physical examination of the patient? When performing a physical examination, would you agree its important to do the following things... Once you have ruled out a particular condition on your list of possible medical conditions, would you agree that you then need to go to the next likely condition and then perform various diagnostic and clinical tests to again rule in or rule out that condition. If a physician does not consider the following condition for these presenting symptoms, would you agree that would be a departure from good and accepted medical practice? If you did not consider XY and Z. as part of your differential diagnosis, would you agree that that would be a violation from the basic standard of medical care? WHATS THE STRATEGY? Keep in mind that there is a clear strategy of asking questions this way. In a medical malpractice case in New York, I need to establish from the doctor who we have sued exactly what the standards of care were for the patient at that particular time. The way to lock the witness into his testimony is to use his own words to establish what the standards of care were, and at a later time I will have an opportunity to ask him whether his own care and treatment were within his own definitions of what the standard of care was. Naturally, if you ask any doctor straight out whether or not they violated good basic medical practices, they will always become defensive and say no. However, if you set it up correctly, you can then ask the doctor hypothetical questions using our version of the events that occurred in which the doctor has to agree that if certain things were not done, based upon his own statement of what the standards are, then it would be a clear violation from good medical practice. Yet, some doctors just dont want to accept responsibility for their actions. Watch the video to learn more...
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 14:31:25 +0000
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