What Do You Mean, “it’s Not IF I Get Sued, but WHEN I Get Sued”? An Introduction to Negligence, Medical Malpractice and Tort Law for graduating E.M. Residents and Staff Physicians

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

11:15am – 11:35am ET

Location: Alhambra/Escorial - 2nd Level

CE: 0.25 CME Credit

Speaker(s)

Joseph R. Nicolini, DO PhD EJD FAAEM (he/him/his)

Emergency Medicine Core Academic Faculty
Naval Medical Center San Diego
San Diego, California

Disclosure(s): Ursa Health Consortium: Ownership or Partnership (Ongoing)

Disclosure(s):

Joseph R. Nicolini, DO, PhD, EJD, FAAEM: Ursa Health Consortium: Ownership or Partnership (Ongoing)

This session will demystify the uniquely terrifying and anxiety-provoking experience of an Emergency Physician (“EP”) undergoing Medical Malpractice litigation. We begins with a hypothetical situation whereby an EP receives a Summons and Complaint for a potential lawsuit. Then, the speaker names and normalizes the common psychological, emotional and behavioral reactions displayed by the EP. Next the speaker mitigates physician suffering by teaching rudimentary concepts and definitions of tort law/medical negligence with the use of easily understood, no-nonsense language. The course continues with operational and working definitions of legal concepts as used by the courts to find physician liability (i.e. the Standard of Care, Negligence, Duty , Breech of Duty, Causation Damages, the Burden of Proof. The course closes with Physician resiliency and mental health strategies.

Learning Objectives:

Identify key concepts and definitions of Negligence and Medical Malpractice from the POV of the legal system, and demystify the terms Standard of Care, Negligence, Duty, Breach, Causation and Damages.
Increase the likelihood of litigation success by the creation an improved legal knowledge base both during the patient encounter and when documenting care.
Bridge the gap in typical residency training by teaching the mechanics of the litigation process, both before, during and after a negative outcome in the the Emergency Department by discussion of typical mistakes, sources of resiliency and self generated "scripts" students may use when interacting with the legal system.