Do you know who is treating you? Patients are often unaware that the professional treating them is not a physician. By example, a patient goes into a routine outpatient procedure under which they are sedated with anesthesia. The anesthesiologist M.D. greets the patient briefly & asks some history & may perform a short examination. This takes place after another professional, likely a C.R.N.A. certified nurse anesthetist and/or a nurse has taken a history from the patient. The M.D. does not do a real thorough job taking the history or performing an examination because he assumes this has been done by the nurse and/or C.R.N.A.

He is present to sedate the patient & once sedated, leaves the operating room giving control & supervision over to the C.R.N.A. The patient has no idea :idea: that this is taking place & that they are not being cared for by the M.D. If something goes wrong during the surgery with the anesthesia, the C.R.N.A. is allowed to use discretion to take care of the patient & may give more anesthesia without asking permission of the M.D. They do not have as much education & are not allowed by law to practice without the supervision of the M.D., but “supervision” is a loose term. What occasionally happens? The non-M.D. practitioner makes big mistakes which should not have been made & which injure the patient forever.

Another example are physician assistants who routinely treat patients in the E.R. The patient makes assumptions that the person giving the orders & treatment is a physician & does not know to inquire further. He is not aware that he is not being treated by a physician assistant & if he is, he is not aware of what that means. Specifically, he is not aware that the physician assistant is again loosely supervised by the physician in charge who may or may not look at the patient’s chart until after, & in some cases, well after, the patient has been discharged. Then, it may be too late as for example, in a hypothetical case in which the patient presents to the E.R. for back pain, gets examined, treated, & ultimately discharged by a physician assistant who diagnoses back strain.

Turns out, the back pain was a symptom of a heart attack & the patient goes home & dies of another massive heart attack. At deposition, the physician will testify that he did nothing wrong & it was no breach to allow the physician assistant to make the decisions he did & for the physician to sign off on the chart days later, having never been aware of the patient or the treatment prior to his death!

“BUYER” BEWARE!

Renee C. Walsh is a Michigan attorney who has been practicing law for six years, over three in medical malpractice defense, & over two in the general practice of law. She is presently focusing on two websites, http://www.walshlawpllc.com & http://www.lawrefs.com both of which aim to provide help-fulinformation & assistance to those in need. Renee’s aims are virtuous as she is one of those rare non-jerk, non-arrogant attorneys, who has since elementary school days, been helping those in need. If you have legal questions email Renee at lawref@lawrefs.com & she will provide the response in her blog.