Has this activity, particularly the lawsuits against physicians, created an unnecessarily hostile environment for medical practice?
There is clearly an impression on the part of many physicians that this frenzy of activity on the pain management front has placed them between the proverbial “rock and a hard place,” that they are “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.” In other words, if they err on the side undertreating pain, fearful about the known risks and side-effects (often greatly exaggerated) of opioid analgesics, they will be sued by patients for failure to provide pain relief or disciplined by the MBC for “underprescribing.” If, on the other hand, they err on the side of pain relief, and liberalize their prescribing practices, they will be sued by their patients for causing premature death or drug addiction, or disciplined by the MBC for “over-prescribing.” There is also concern that such liberalized prescribing practices may put them on the radar screen of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and hence place them at a greatly increased risk of prosecution for drug diversion. There is also the
Related Questions
- Can my efforts to keep medical records secure and private in the HIE environment help protect my practice from liability?
- How will the certification process help physicians who are ready to implement the EMR in their medical practice?
- How is Personalcare Physicians of Newport Beach different than a traditional medical practice?
