TeleDoc: Damn the physical exam

October 20, 2006

I’m pretty sure the first malpractice case will kill them off:

But David Karp, a risk management consultant in Cloverdale CA, thinks TelaDoc’s physicians could face some potential liability. “Of course, some minor conditions can be diagnosed over the phone,” says Karp. “In fact, doctors do this all the time. But when you take away the ability to see the patient, to palpate the body, check the skin color, evaluate the patient’s affect, you take away some of the important elements of diagnosis. That’s a real liability risk even if you know the patient well. When the patient’s a virtual stranger, the risk is even greater.”

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Tagged as: malpractice, patient

{ 8 comments }

1 Anonymous October 21, 2006 at 1:41 pm: I would be really good at this. Anybody who calls, I just say “I can’t really give medical advice over the phone for a condition like this. It could be something life threatening. You need to put down the phone and immediately go to the nearest ER”. ENd of consult. Free money!
2 Anonymous October 21, 2006 at 5:19 pm: But wait! Weren’t there an awful lot of people on this website a while back who insisted that physical assessment was a thing of the past? That it was time consuming and inefficacious? Are these the same ones who are investing their life savings in this TeleDoc entreprise?? (or were they just clever med-mal attorneys goading stupid doctors into skipping down this primrose lane??)
3 Anonymous October 21, 2006 at 10:27 pm: Physical exam is a waste of time. The problem with Teladoc is you can do a Head CY and Lumbar puncture for every simple sinus headache.
4 Anonymous October 22, 2006 at 10:56 am: How do you do an LP over the phone?
5 Anonymous October 22, 2006 at 1:43 pm: How do you do an LP over the phone?

Send the kit by courier, have patient put it needle up on their kitchen floor, then have them fall backwards on needle. He meant you can’t do ct’s and LP’s by phone.
6 Anonymous October 22, 2006 at 6:17 pm: Yeah Physical Exam is a waste of time for peole who can’t do one well and can’t make any sense of one in any case.
7 Anonymous October 22, 2006 at 9:46 pm: Do they even mention Physical Exam in court?
8 Al Guzman MD October 11, 2009 at 10:42 pm: Physical exam is so important in minimizing lab tests requested by MD’s and I believe that this is very important even in this age of advanced diagnostics! Physical exam will be with us for the next millinium.