March 2005 – A case where a little defensive medicine would have saved this physician:
The physician tried to rely his clinical acumen to make the diagnosis: “Doctors are not magicians or wizards. They can only base their result on what they hear.”
This got him into trouble by missing the gallbladder disease. It would have possibly saved the patient, and kept the physician out of the courtroom, had he just ordered an ultrasound instead of relying on the history and physical. Chalk up another point for defensive medicine.
