Page 41 - OB Risks - Delivering the Goods (Part Two)

SVMIC Obstetrics Risks: Delivering the Goods

obstetrician in the unenviable position of sounding like Captain

Barbossa from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, referencing
the pirate code, “[t]he code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’

.
than actual rules”
65

It is important for all obstetricians to be familiar with the
ACOG Guidelines. If your treatment plan deviates from the

ACOG Guidelines, your rationale should be included in your
documentation.

Collateral Issues

Collateral issues are those things that negatively impact the
defense of a case, which has nothing to do with the medical

judgment/treatment rendered or not rendered. They are
the intangibles. Most of those things (the venue, jury pool,

indefensible physician, etc.) are not factors that can be
adequately addressed in a two-hour course. However, the most

common and by far the most damaging collateral issue revealed
in our claims analysis is “jousting” .

Jousting, otherwise known as “finger-pointing” or “blame-

shifting”, is common in cases involving more than one
defendant. Obstetricians and labor and delivery nurses often

finger-point at one another over the evaluation of fetal distress
as to information provided to the physician for him or her to

determine whether the physician’s presence is necessary to
examine the patient.

65 Walt Disney Productions, Pirates of the Caribbean

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