One of the skills and stresses about being a doctor, is giving advice to or about patients we have never seen. If readers think these are rare events, it happens nearly every day. Often during weekend or evening hours when I am on call, my partners’ patients will call with questions on their condition or about their medications. Radiology departments contact me during off hours with abnormal CAT scan results of patients I do not know. Or, a doctor may call me during the day for some informal advice about one of his patients. These physician-to-physician inquiries are called ‘curbside consults’, which are appropriate for simple questions that do not require a formal face to face consultations. Physicians must be cautious when providing a curbside opinion on a patient he has not seen as even informal advice could result in legal exposure if the patient later files a medical malpractice claim. Consider this hypothetical example. An internist con...
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