Medico-legal issues related to emergency physicians' documentation in Canadian emergency departments.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Physician documentation plays a central role in the delivery of safe patient care. It describes a physician's clinical decision-making and supports essential communication between healthcare providers within the patient's circle of care. Good documentation can potentially also decrease a physician's medico-legal risk. This study provides examples of documentation issues attributed to physicians practicing emergency medicine as identified by peer experts in civil legal actions, regulatory authority complaints (College) and hospital complaints (collectively, medico-legal cases) in Canada.

Methods

We conducted a descriptive study and content analysis of medico-legal cases involving emergency department physicians from a national repository at the Canadian Medical Pro

SUBMITTER: Smith JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10495505 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature