Remember the exam-taking advice telling you to go with your first impression if no other answer seems to fit? Fast forward to your clinical practice today and that advice may still apply: At the least, be sure to follow through on your original suspicions when assessing a patient’s complaints. If you don’t, you’ve only helped a plaintiff attorney write his or her trial argument.

Asking one’s physician for a “favor” generally means asking for something outside of what the physician would normally and customarily do. When that favor also involves asking the physician to step outside his or her specialty, the warning bells should start ringing.

An appellate court has ruled that a hospital’s attempt to manage a staff physician’s behavior through a written agreement went too far because the physician’s summary loss of privileges could be traced back to patient care issues.

The word "passive" derives from the Latin passivus, capable of suffering. From passivus came pati, to suffer, endure, from which we get "patient" (both the adjective and the noun). An opposing attorney will leap at an opportunity to paint a picture of a passive physician.

When this column addresses adverse events, we frequently try to identify some action or inaction that, if addressed differently, might have led to a better outcome. Though thankfully rare, errors nevertheless can occur even with a spotless work-up.