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MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
Building the case
Once the reviews are done and the injuries suffered by the plaintiff
have been determined, almost everything — outside of plaintiff and
family member depositions — that builds the case is external. If
you've had any recent complaint investigations or bad results on a
state, Medicare or accreditation survey, these will be brought up. The
depositions, along with requests for licensure files, will also be aimed
toward determining corporate structure, in order to figure out who
could be named in the suit and, therefore, potentially responsible for
the payout at judgment.
In addition, be very careful what you put in your marketing materials and what company names you associate to a given location or
ownership of a given location. Marketing materials are fair game in
discovery and turned over without much thought — but they often
provide information regarding ownership and governance. As a result,
it might be a good idea to have a lawyer or compliance practitioner
look over your marketing materials before they're published.
Your lines of defense
There are 2 fronts to fight on. At the facility level, the issues are clinical and risk-management oriented. At the corporate level, you should
be concerned with strategy, policy and procedures, retention of
employees — just about anything outside the scope of the specific
care in the facility.
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J A N U A R Y 2013
