Legal Issues in Emergency Medicine

Rade B. Vukmir MD, JD is President of Critical Care Medicine Associates, a medical service consulting enterprise. This medical consulting firm has a twenty-seven year history of providing comprehensive medical, legal, educational and medical industry consultative service. Dr Vukmir is trained in emergency and critical care medicine and has a degree in law with health care specialization. His focus is on patient safety, risk management, operational efficiency and innovation in emergency and critical care medicine.

1. Abandonment in the emergency department; 2. Abandonment of patient by treating physician; 3. Admission; 4. Advance directives; 5. Advanced practice providers; 6. Adverse event disclosure; 7. Against medical advice (AMA); 8. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and education; 9. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and access to facilities; 10. Assault; 11. Assisted suicide; 12. Battery; 13. Bed boarding; 14. Brain death; 15. Care of children; 16. Code response; 17. Commitment; 18. Communication; 19. Competence and capacity; 20. Confidentiality; 21. Consultation; 22. Controlled substances; 23. Criminal charges; 24. Criminal acts; 25. Death certification; 26. Decision-making; 27. Difficult patient encounter; 28. Discharge instructions; 29. Disruptive provider behavior; 30. Do Not Resuscitate (DNR); 31. Documentation; 32. Domestic violence; 33. Driving impairment; 34. Drug and alcohol abuse; 35. Duty to warn; 36. Electronic health records (EHR); 37. Emergency consent; 38. Emergency Medical Services (EMS); 39. Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA); 40. Employment issues; 41. Expert witness; 42. Fitness for duty; 43. Frequent user; 44. Futility; 45. Geriatric abuse; 46. Good Samaritan; 47. Guidelines and protocols; 48. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) / Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH); 49. HIV; 50. Hospital medicine; 51. Immigrant care; 52. Impaired physician; 53. Indigent care; 54. Inflight emergencies; 55. Informal consultation; 56. Informed consent; 57. Insurance; 58. Intoxication; 59. Laboratory testing; 60. Left without being seen (LWBS) / left without treatment (LWOT) / elopment; 61. Malpractice claims; 62. Mandatory care; 63. Mandatory reporting; 64. Medical education; 65. Medical errors; 66. Medical records; 67. Medical Screening Exam (MSE); 68. Minor consent; 69. Missed illness and injury; 70. Multiple visits; 71. Nursing; 72. Operations; 73. Organ donation; 74. Overcrowding; 75. Pain control/medication; 76. Patient satisfaction; 77. Pediatric abuse; 78. Peer review; 79. Policy/procedure; 80. Pregnancy; 81. Prescription writing; 82. Privacy; 83. Professional boundary issues; 84. Protected health information (PHI); 85. Psychiatric care; 86. Referral; 87. Religion; 88. Research; 89. Restraint; 90. Resuscitation; 91. Service contract; 92. Sexual assault; 93. Social media; 94. Staff privileges; 95. Subpoena; 96. Substance abuse; 97. Suicide; 98. Telemedicine; 99. Telephone advice; 100. Third-party duty; 101. Transfer; 102. Translation, interpreting, and language issues; 103. Triage; 104. Unanticipated death; 105. Urgent care; 106. Violence; Glossary.