Strategies of Avoiding Medicolegal Problems

“Medicine is of all the arts the most noble, but owing to ignorance of those who practice it, and those who, inconsiderately form a judgment of them, it is at present far behind all other arts.” Hippocrates The provision of unnecessary health care is a serious problem and involves two key legal issues. First, doctors’ fear of litigation drives defensive practices – ordering tests and procedures, making referrals, and prescribing drugs to reduce perceived legal risks, rather than to advance patient care. Second, suboptimal communication and decision-making processes undermine a patient’s right to make informed health-care choices [1]. Information is available to judge and evaluate with limited knowledge in the field. Do we feel the same thing nowadays? Probably yes; and before consulting a patient, medicolegal implications are the first fear in our mind due to some of the facts such as decline in self-regulatory standards, rise in medical malpractices and commercialization, imbalance between service and business, and lack of an effective internal or external regulation. We must not forget the truth that there is a public outcry against medical profession due to some incidences, which is generally being applied to all healthcare professional community by media because of negative coverage. We should also remember that this is not the commonest issue in each doctor’s career; and media are not always negative, however, only a few incidences will imprint a general impression on the mindset of public and end up in to medicolegal consequences. We must come out of this fear and phobia and succeed in career if we maintain an acceptable standard of care and communication. If we discuss about the difference of medicolegal problems between physicians and surgeons, it is found that surgeons receive complaints twice as much as received by physicians [2]. This increased risk of litigation arises partly from involvement in surgical procedures and treatments but also reflects wider

Identification of Ethical and Medicolegal Problems in the Care of Patients in the Intensive Care Unit

Intensive care is an important part of a hospital that serves patients with critical illness conditions and requires continuous medical supervision and support. The complexity of the problems related to intensive care results in ethical and medicolegal problems. Some of the ethical and medicolegal problems identified can be in the form of priority problems for patients entering and leaving the intensive care room, facility limitations, treatment is useless, terminal state, directive advances, do not resuscitate, brain stem death, euthanasia, and micro-ethical problems that arise directly during patient care which can cause a bad experience for patients and reduce the quality of service. Problem solving can be done by applying clinical ethics, basic principles of bioethics and medicolegal as well as effective communication. Doctors who work in intensive care installations must have the ability to determine patient priorities, be able to communicate well with patients and / or their families, and be able to provide end-of-life care based on basic principles of bioethics. This capability will lead to good and complete medical services.