The "Curbside Consult"

We have all done it. 

You see Mark in a hospital hallway and he asks, “Hey Frank, I have a patient with XYZ symptoms….what do you think?”

When this happens, you provide a quick thought about what might help a colleague get to the root of a patient’s problem.  But you always thought that it was “off the record” and wasn’t really a part of the patient’s care.  That, after all, was Mark’s issue.  He is the physician who is responsible for the patient.  He is the one where the buck stops.

 Perhaps that’s what you thought, but the reality may be far from that. 

While we have all heard horror stories where a physician who provides a curbside consult gets sucked into a malpractice case, they seemed to be infrequent. But that may not be the case in the future.

Minnesota – April 17, 2019 : Minnesota Supreme Court

Mark this date.  On that date, the Minnesota...