JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP I am tangentially involved in a medical malpractice suit in which the physician in question complied completely with the standard of care. Her documentation was great, her care exceptional, there was no discrepancy between her charting and the nurses’ charting, the doctor-to-doctor hand-off went well, and she communicated with the patient and family. Unfortunately, the ultimate patient outcome was horrible. In the aftermath, the physician was named in a …
Read MoreCommercial Motor Vehicle Medical Examinations – Act Now to Participate!
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP This is not the call you want to receive. “Dr. Shufeldt, one of urgent care centers your group just purchased was named in a multimillion dollar suit. The allegation is that one of the center’s providers performed a DOT physical on a driver who was reportedly overweight, had Type II diabetes, had hypertension and undiagnosed sleep apnea. While driving, he fell asleep, crossed the median and a struck a …
Read MoreThe Game Part 3
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Lawyer: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning? Lawyer: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? Witness: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. Lawyer: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? Witness: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. Lawyer: And Mr. Johnson was dead at the …
Read MoreThe Game Part 2
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP I used to love to watch Raymond Burr in “Perry Mason.” He would get some poor witness on the stand and, in the middle of her testimony, look at the jury while he handed the witness an incriminating document and say very loudly, “What about this?” At which point the witness would dissolve into tears with her head in her hands and confess to basically everything including the crime …
Read MoreThe Game Part 1
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In the movie The Game, Nicholas Van Orton (played by Michael Douglas) is a very wealthy and successful businessman. Unfortunately, his successes come at the cost of his family life and close, personal relationships. His brother, Conrad (played by Sean Penn), gives him a gift on his 48th birthday. The gift is enrollment into a live-action game where Nicholas is the principal player. This game initially consumes then seemingly …
Read MoreIt Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Have you seen poster with the phrase, “IT COULD BE THAT THE PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE IS ONLY TO SERVE AS A WARNING TO OTHERS?” Have you ever had “one of those days” where you believed the poster was a sign from God directed only to you? Over the years I have heard hundreds of patients and numerous friends and acquaintances mutter the phrase, “It seemed like a good …
Read MoreEt tu, Brute?
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In the past, when I have broached the topic of employee theft with urgent care owners, their typical, somewhat indignant, response is, “My employees would never do that!” I really like this answer because I really value loyalty – more than anything. In the film Ides of March, campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) proclaims: “I value loyalty over everything.” Of course, he completely gets screwed (by his …
Read MoreContinue CPR! or How to Save the Patient and Screw the Pooch1
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP So there I was (all good stories start this way), having just participated in saving a 58-year-old guy who collapsed while playing golf with his buddies. It was a classic v-fib arrest—dropped after hitting a great drive right down the middle of the fairway. The man’s friends started CPR, paramedics arrived and shocked him out of VF into a sinus rhythm and intubated him. While in the emergency department …
Read MoreIt’s Not Just Drugs and Rock and Roll
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP The one thing I have left out has been… well…sex. Sex has over the years I have attempted to cover it all. Drugs, rock and roll, BFRF (big F-ing red flag), airplane crashes, you name it. Sex has always been a challenging and awkward subject or me. In fact, I cried the first time I had sex—thank God I was alone. Anyway, speaking of God, my challenges with this subject …
Read More‘Why Can’t We All Get Along?’
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It’s not often you get to quote the late Rodney King, but there it is. Mr. King’s quote was made famous during the Los Angeles riots, which were arguably incited by the acquittal of the police officers accused of excessive force during Mr. King’s arrest. In 1860, a book review on medico-legal jurisprudence argued that “law and medicine had evolved into mutually incompatible professions.”1 One hundred and sixty-two years …
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