SAN DIEGO – Mental health professionals can lower the risk of legal exposure from patients filing malpractice suits through proper assessment and proper documentation, a psychiatrist said at the annual Psych Congress.
“You don’t have to have a perfect performance, but you do have to gather relevant data. And you’ll be judged on whether you took reasonable precautions once you identified the risk,” said Phillip J. Resnick, MD, professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.
Research suggests that 35% of malpractice claims involve incorrect treatment and 19% involve medication problems. More than half of all U.S. physicians reportedly have been sued, and psychiatrists are named in lawsuits less often than other medical specialists.
What’s “reasonable” in terms of assessment and precautions? In the past, courts may have held to a community standard: Did you provide the usual care that others in your region would provide? This approach allowed physicians to avoid responsibility if “you could prove that the majority of [local] doctors do what you did,” Dr. Resnick said, even if they’re “sloppy and bad.”
A newer, “reasonably prudent practitioner” standard expects medical professionals to do the right thing no matter where they live. who has consulted on numerous well-known cases, including that of Jeffrey Dahmer, Susan Smith, Timothy McVey, and Theodore Kaczynski.
Psychiatrists can be vulnerable legally if they refuse to respond to concerns from family members, Dr. Resnick said. The best approach is to listen. “You don’t need permission to listen – only to release information. You can always listen.”
Dr. Resnick is a former president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. He has no disclosures.