Practice Management

This article addresses common errors that lead to litigation involving ob/gyn ultrasound, with options to reduce ultrasound-related litigation.

Over the past few years, progress has clearly been made with regard to the professional liability crisis.

Readers discuss the prevalence of endometriosis and providing healthcare to the poor.

The most vulnerable deserve care and coverage for preventative health services.

The plaintiff asserted that during the diagnostic laparoscopy, Dr A and Dr B should have detected the ectopic pregnancy in the right fallopian tube. Her attorneys claimed that based upon the plaintiff’s abdominal pain, vaginal bleeding, and β- hCG levels, and absent evidence of intrauterine pregnancy on ultrasound, the defendants should have presumed ectopic pregnancy and adequately evaluated the fallopian tube before discharging the patient, thus avoiding rupture.

67% of residency directors reported that a lack of faculty expertise in medical ethics was a significant barrier to their attempts to provide a more comprehensive educational process. I have a proposal for a solution to these problems: Teaching about the “house of ethics” in ob/gyn, as we do at Vanderbilt University.

Two cases illustrate how jury verdicts and awards to plaintiffs may differ drastically in medical malpractice trials.

The plaintiff’s lawyers alleged that the defendants caused the perforation during the D & C, failed to recognize it intraoperatively, and failed to repair it at the time.

Even if you see few Medicare patients, start preparing for value-focused payment.

Following a normal delivery, a woman develops an infection that leads to severe consequences. Plus: Another case alleging scarring from forceps.

The March of Dimes releases their annual report card on the United States and prematurity. Plus: Can anything be done about HPV vaccine rates? Also, a look at the place of ultrasound in breast cancer detection.

An Alabama woman went for an annual pelvic exam and underwent a Pap test. It showed a high-grade squamous intraepithelial neoplasia and the gynecologist could not rule out cancer. The patient then had a colposcopy, which revealed high-grade dysplasia with negative endocervical currettings. Each was identified as a form of pre-cancer.

The professional responsibility model of obstetric ethics provides a powerful antidote to maternal rights-based reductionism.

The USPSTF updated recommendations on mammography have sparked discussion on screening in younger women. Plus, does exposure to gestational diabetes increase risk of autism? What are the implications of genome editing?

A high/low agreement usually is done to prevent a “runaway” jury from coming back with an unreasonably high award, but ensures the plaintiff of something because they are agreeing to a lower amount than what the jury might have awarded.

An ectopic pregnancy is terminated, but traces of a uterine pregnancy are found. Was it heterotopic?

According to a new study, women aged 65 and older who have metabolic syndrome may be at higher risk of developing all types of endometrial cancer.

Yalda Afshar, MD, PhD, Contemporary OB/GYN's residency blogger, reveals her New Year's realizations and resolutions as she heads into 2015.

On July 29, 2010, a 46-year-old obese primarily Spanish-speaking patient was admitted to a hospital by her private ob/gyn Dr. A for a total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) and/or laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH) that day.

A California woman with a history of 2 premature deliveries and a single miscarriage became pregnant in 2004. A few days after the pregnancy was confirmed, she was seen by a physician at a military base in connection with an application to accompany her husband overseas. The application was approved and the patient went to Spain, where she delivered at 31 weeks’ gestation in 2005.

An analysis of data from 46 states and the District of Columbia shows that the level of Medicaid reimbursement for office visits has an impact on likelihood of patient screening with Pap tests and other diagnostics for cancer.

Codes for reporting complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium are in chapter 15 of ICD-10-CM and begin with the letter O.

If you are like me, you had no idea who provided the money to pay your salary as a resident. I just assumed it was my hospital. But the federal government spends more than $15 billion per year on residency and fellowship training, and many are asking why physicians deserve this special largesse denied other professionals.

Unless there is definitive evidence that one defendant is solely responsible, once jurors see “dueling defendants” they most often assume the worst happened and find blame all around.

A bowel injury during salpingectomy leads to septic shock and amputation. What went wrong?

Injuries from known risks lead to different lawsuit outcomes.

A reader writes about reducing costs of care to lead to improved, sustainable revenues for the clinical enterprise.

There's both good news and bad. More patients will be covered, but you may see fewer of them.

Although the passage and politics surrounding implementation of the ACA have been tumultuous, it seems certain for now that the law will stand at least until 2016 if not permanently and our practices will have to change, in some ways for the better.