Question

What happens when a physician consults with another physician and is given a recommendation that results an a medical error? ie An ER physician consults with a cardiologist and the cardiologist recommends a medication that is known to cause problems for patients presenting like the one the ER physician is treating. The ER physician is aware of these risk ye gives teh medication based off the consult with the cardiologist.

What responsibility does each physician have?

Answer 1

Since the physician has consulted with another physician; i.e the ER physician has consulted with the cardiologist and they have made a medical error, in such a case the errors of the commission occur as a result of the wrong action taken. The ER physician should make the cardiologist aware about the complete case history of the patient and only then they could go ahead and prescribe a medication. Prescribing a medication without knowing the history and status of the patient would result in any kind of error, especially wrong dosage of medicine for example administering a medication to which a patient has a known allergy.

Each physician has complete responsiblity of what would happen to the patient if a wrong drug is prescribed.

When a patient is brought the to the Emergency Room, the ER physician should listen to all the details that are being told by the patient or their relatives. Details such as allergic reaction to any drugs, blood group of the patient, history of any illnesses, hereditory diseases in the family and any other details that are required for treatment of the patient should be well documented by the ER Department staff or the ER physician who is dealing with the patient.

When one physician consults another physician or specialist to deal with any disease condition that is brought to the ER, that physician should share the complete file of what treatment is currently being given to the patient and what is the history of the disease condition that the patient. This would help the other physician to be accurate in prescribing what drug needs to be administered

Also it would be advisable for the other physician or the specialist to visit the patient in the ER as soon as possible and then prescribe medication since prescribing the medication after thorough inspection of the patient is better than prescribing the medication by just listening to condition of the patient through another physician.

Accountability of patient safety lies with both the doctors as they would be responsible for whatever may happen to the patient.