Suing threat and profession fatigue.

[rBananas]

Hi, I was hoping to get some opinions on my current professional situation.  

 

I have practiced for 4 years. For the past 1.5 years I started to work in a private practice (also a new field- GYN) after leaving an amazing teaching hospital. I made the switch because I had to relocate.

 

6 months into my new job, I was asked to go part time as the practice did not have sufficient patient volume, I was told I was the only one let go part time because “I was the new one.”

Then the secretaries told me that new patients would not schedule appointments with me when they heard my name was Latino, so they stopped saying my name when new patients called. Within a few weeks the practice picked up again, so I never went to part time. However, all this was an emotional blow for me. 

During this time, my relationship with my colleagues and SP were great, and my SP gave me good verbal reviews, but never a written one.

 

After 1.5 years of being in this job I decided to quit (long hours, small practice lacking professionalism). My boss was upset when I decided to leave; she said she had lost money training me. For the record, her midlevel providers would last 2-3 years in average. A week after I left she sent me a very aggressive email saying I had “not closed my charts correctly”. We later discovered it was a misunderstanding and everything was ok. A few days later she sent me another email saying that a lawyer contact her about one of my patients who is planning on suing me (?!!).  All these emails and my SP new attitude after I left made me feel unstable.

 

I informed my prior employer that I had planned traveling abroad for 2 months after leaving. I was hoping to just reset my mood and return fresh to a new job. However, it has been a month since I left my prior job and I feel so drained… I am afraid of the possibility of someone suing me and how can that affect my future career prospects. Also, I feel I cannot trust my prior SP. I am tired of working long hours, I am not looking forward to skipping more meals in the name of work, and now getting sued after having given my best? I am even questioning whether I want to continue the medical field all together.

 

If anyone has any experience with these type of situations or feels the same way please share your thoughts. 

[WeBuyAndSellJunk]

https://www.hippoed.com/urgentcare/rap/episode/adisposition/medical

[south]

^^^ wow, kind of done in one.  Interesting.  

 

I smell bullsh-- on the lawsuit.  She already lashed out at you once and it was exactly that.  It really sounds like she is pissed because she (essentially) hasn't gotten her way or that you voted with your feet when you felt like you were being jerked around.  And she is just trying to make you miserable.  Basic harassment.  

 

I'm going to give you free advice, and it's worth every penny.  The most difficult thing may be to dump this crap into your personal archive pile and stop worrying about it.  Stop letting this difficult individual rent space in your head for free.  

 

They have your contact information.  You are reachable if there is a legitimate need.  You know?

 

If she contacts you again, and you just can't help yourself, ask her for the name of the lawyer who is planning to sue.  Or the name of the patient.  Or HER malpractice insurance or attorney contact details.  Or any other crap, really, anything about this alleged case.   That will often tell you whether it's real or not.  Make it more work for her to contact you.  As I said, it just sounds like harassment.  

 

My vote - get on with your life.  If there is a real problem, you will know about it, you can deal with it at that time, and borrowing trouble now won't help you.  

[sas5814]

Hi, I was hoping to get some opinions on my current professional situation.  

 

I have practiced for 4 years. For the past 1.5 years I started to work in a private practice (also a new field- GYN) after leaving an amazing teaching hospital. I made the switch because I had to relocate.

 

6 months into my new job, I was asked to go part time as the practice did not have sufficient patient volume, I was told I was the only one let go part time because “I was the new one.”

Then the secretaries told me that new patients would not schedule appointments with me when they heard my name was Latino, so they stopped saying my name when new patients called. Within a few weeks the practice picked up again, so I never went to part time. However, all this was an emotional blow for me. 

During this time, my relationship with my colleagues and SP were great, and my SP gave me good verbal reviews, but never a written one.

 

After 1.5 years of being in this job I decided to quit (long hours, small practice lacking professionalism). My boss was upset when I decided to leave; she said she had lost money training me. For the record, her midlevel providers would last 2-3 years in average. A week after I left she sent me a very aggressive email saying I had “not closed my charts correctly”. We later discovered it was a misunderstanding and everything was ok. A few days later she sent me another email saying that a lawyer contact her about one of my patients who is planning on suing me (?!!).  All these emails and my SP new attitude after I left made me feel unstable.

 

I informed my prior employer that I had planned traveling abroad for 2 months after leaving. I was hoping to just reset my mood and return fresh to a new job. However, it has been a month since I left my prior job and I feel so drained… I am afraid of the possibility of someone suing me and how can that affect my future career prospects. Also, I feel I cannot trust my prior SP. I am tired of working long hours, I am not looking forward to skipping more meals in the name of work, and now getting sued after having given my best? I am even questioning whether I want to continue the medical field all together.

 

If anyone has any experience with these type of situations or feels the same way please share your thoughts. 

Let me echo what South said. Build some defenses against what was a bad situation and what sounds like a bad doc. Do you have a tail policy or did you have coverage at the time of employment that covers you? If so call that company. Give them the Docs name and relate what you were told. They will contact her and, in all probability, that will be the end of it. Once she realizes you are actually going to stand up for yourself she will stop. That is what bullies do. BTW you cannot trust your prior SP and shouldn't. Protect yourself. Take some affirmative steps in defending yourself. There is no feeling quite as bad as being helpless. Once you start to take some power in this situation you will feel better.

Now I'll relate a story from several years back. I hate a bully more than just about anything. There was a surgeon at the hospital where I was on the board. I was the only provider on a board of civilians and was generally given the jobs that required dealing with the physicians particularly when they were acting like petulant children. This surgeon was at a meeting where I was in attendance and was yelling and demeaning like he always did...you know putting people in their place. I finally had enough and stood and calmly walked over behind his chair and put my hands on his shoulders and leaned down close to his ear. (I'm a big guy...6"4" and about 240). I quietly growled "does this make you uncomfortable? It should. This is is what it feels like to be bullied and you need to stop it or we will continue this conversation." He got up and stormed out of the room and, at least when I was around, we never had another problem with him.

The point of that story is you will be the victim of a bully as long as you allow it. As had been said don't let them in your head and push back some and then move on. You will be amazed at how much better you feel just by taking a little power in the situation.

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

As an aside to what the OP initially said, while it is never an enjoyable experience to receive "papers", I seem to notice an increasing number of threads with comments detailing threats of suits, actual suits, and "How am I going to deal with this?".

 

Observations:

1)  YOU are responsible for making sure you have insurance coverage.  YOU need to know the details, including policy number, amount of coverage, tail coverage cost if applicable, and WHOM to contact with regard to that policy.  For me, it's a non-starter to not have this information, including the contact phone number.   Even though I work for a local governmental agency, I was able to obtain this information and a copy of the declaration page which then allowed me to point out some features of the policy that the manager wasn't aware of!  You can get your own occurrence policy for low amounts $100/$300K for a category I risk stratification for under $1K.

 

2)  The risk of litigation against YOU is a known fact when one gets into the field, just like the risk associated with construction, law enforcement, firefighting, etc..  I am certainly NOT saying that this was the case in the OP's situation but it is a known risk.  We all need to do a better job of coming to grips with this fact.  The fact of the matter is that our legal system is not about "find the truth", it's more of a game of oneupmanship amongst the legal parties (they each have a scorecard).  It seems based on the tone of other threads that these concerns fall out of space without any knowledge that it could happen.  It isn't a fun experience (yes, I've been through it and have given multiple depositions in other cases) but as long as you've reviewed the record and feel justified in your level of care then there isn't anything that you can change.  Just be certain that you can justify your reasoning.  See #1 and consider your own policy so you have an attorney watching out for YOU, and not the practice.  They tend to want to protect whoever is footing the premium payment.  Imagine that...

 

3) If you're in a tort reform state as I am, think about it even less.  Unless there is some exceptional case with excessive payouts or media notoriety, in many cases it isn't worth the time/effort of the attorney.

 

Hope it all works out for you.

[jlusv]

As an aside to what the OP initially said, while it is never an enjoyable experience to receive "papers", I seem to notice an increasing number of threads with comments detailing threats of suits, actual suits, and "How am I going to deal with this?".

 

Observations:

1)  YOU are responsible for making sure you have insurance coverage.  YOU need to know the details, including policy number, amount of coverage, tail coverage cost if applicable, and WHOM to contact with regard to that policy.  For me, it's a non-starter to not have this information, including the contact phone number.   Even though I work for a local governmental agency, I was able to obtain this information and a copy of the declaration page which then allowed me to point out some features of the policy that the manager wasn't aware of!  You can get your own occurrence policy for low amounts $100/$300K for a category I risk stratification for under $1K.

 

2)  The risk of litigation against YOU is a known fact when one gets into the field, just like the risk associated with construction, law enforcement, firefighting, etc..  I am certainly NOT saying that this was the case in the OP's situation but it is a known risk.  We all need to do a better job of coming to grips with this fact.  The fact of the matter is that our legal system is not about "find the truth", it's more of a game of oneupmanship amongst the legal parties (they each have a scorecard).  It seems based on the tone of other threads that these concerns fall out of space without any knowledge that it could happen.  It isn't a fun experience (yes, I've been through it and have given multiple depositions in other cases) but as long as you've reviewed the record and feel justified in your level of care then there isn't anything that you can change.  Just be certain that you can justify your reasoning.  See #1 and consider your own policy so you have an attorney watching out for YOU, and not the practice.  They tend to want to protect whoever is footing the premium payment.  Imagine that...

 

3) If you're in a tort reform state as I am, think about it even less.  Unless there is some exceptional case with excessive payouts or media notoriety, in many cases it isn't worth the time/effort of the attorney.

 

Hope it all works out for you.

 

New grad so insurance is still kinda confusing and weird to me. What's the advantage of having a low policy like that in addition to the coverage policy your clinic might provide? Is there an advantage? What about if I'm under a shared limits policy (as I believe I am at my new clinic)? I had talked to an insurance provider and they basically were like, "Ehhh... Probably not worth it." I found that odd as they're supposed to be trying to sell things, but I guess they were being honest?

 

I really wish they'd spent more time in school going over this. I know we have a lot to learn as is, but this stuff is very stressful. The insurance agent I had talked to mentioned that most physicians don't even know what they're doing.

[sas5814]

For me the biggest issue with being covered by someone else is the insurance company then works for that someone else not you. If the hospital insures you and you get sued the insurance company and its lawyers represents the hospital first and you second. It isn't supposed to be like that but it is. I had an employer based insurance where they required my permission to settle but if I wouldn't give it and lost a malpractice case then I was liable for the entire settlement. I want the insurance company and the lawyer to represent my interests not those of my employer.

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

The low coverage amount buys me the cheapest legal coverage. Not payout coverage, legal coverage. As sas5814 said, YOU are an afterthought with a group umbrella policy. Folks need to understand this before seeing their first professional patient.

[rBananas]

Thank you all for the comments!

I happened to have personal professional insurance with tail coverage as I was a private practice. Def will be contacting them. 

I wil do my best at shaking off the bullying. Yet, that medical malpractice stress syndrome that printer2100 brought up is real and I guess the fear is still there. Not a good way to practice medicine, but it's reality... I will be looking for more information about what to expect and how to better prepare myself for a legal case.