Suitable Behavior: What to Do When Being Sued
by Neil Osterweil
WebMD Medical News
Harold J. Bursztajn, MD, associate professor
of psychiatry and co-director of the program on psychiatry and the law
at Harvard Medical School in Boston, tells WebMD that when a physician
is served notice of a suit, "the first thing is not to take it personally.
Try to understand what happened, see it in terms of a process of dispute
resolution, continue to maintain a professional perspective, and respect
the truth."
"It's important to keep in mind that there's a difference between
making an error and being negligent," Bursztajn emphasizes. "But
if you have in fact made an error that amounts to negligence, that doesn't
mean you're the world's worst doctor, by any stretch of the imagination,
or a bad doctor in general. One can learn from one's errors, even those
errors which amount to being negligent."