If you have been a consistent reader of this column, you have seen a couple of different variations of my story about being named in a medical liability lawsuit. In that suit, a very young (less than 6 months old) patient had a neurologic insult during anesthesia for repair of a complex congenital heart defect. Truly a devastating injury. And though, in my estimation, the care I provided was standard for the time and place, my medical liability insurer did end up paying out a significant award as a result of mediation. For me, the really sad part is that the plaintiff’s lawyer was going to take home a significant chunk of that payment. This time, I’ll save you from having to read another reboot of that story. Instead, let’s take a look at how we teach physician anesthesiologists about professional liability.
In the recent past, when anesthesiology educators were...
