No Exit

May 21, 2013……..No exit from threat of lawsuits. Leave practice, and don’t have the opportunity to correct deficiencies that may come to light, e.g. a colonoscopy, mammogram, pap smear, or PSA test that wasn’t ordered, or a lab test that wasn’t followed up on in a timely manner. Stay in practice and have the opportunity to make more mistakes of commission or omission. The only way out is to die, get disabled while practicing, go to jail for malpractice, or cease taking any new patients and just focus on the ones already in my “panel.” The latter course doesn’t preclude making errors on these same patients going forward. Another option: my license could be revoked because of narcotic prescribing errors or deficiencies in chart documentation. In that case, I might still be able to review charts of patients previously seen but not take on new patients or deal with new problems in existing patients. I would scan the record for deficiencies before sending the record out to another doctor to take over the “case.”