Bonnie Lutz, JD
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"CLIENTS SEEK LEGAL ACTION because of a lack of trust," says Bonnie Lutz, JD, an associate with Klinedinst Attorneys at Law
in Orange County, Calif. "The specific action they focus on really doesn't matter. The bottom line is you broke the client's
trust somehow. And that's why you've got a veterinary malpractice suit or a complaint to the veterinary malpractice board
on your hands."
Board complaints are more common than lawsuits, says Lutz, for two reasons: 1) Hiring an attorney is expensive, damages are
minimal because in most states the courts see pets as property, and the client has to pay out of pocket. 2) The client doesn't
want to sue in small claims court because it's too personal—they don't usually want to confront the doctor.
"The major thing that gets veterinarians in trouble with the board is lack of trust resulting from a lack of communication,"
says Lutz. She points to two areas where communication often breaks down: doctor-to-client communication and doctor-to-doctor
communication.
Doctor-client communication
Success strategies: Identifying potential problem areas
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Dr. Tom Vaughan, dean emeritus at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., agrees that communication breakdowns are the most common
reason for liability issues. "Haste, impatience, insensitivity, arrogance, condescension, and reliance on indirect communication
such as e-mail, third parties, and answering services, can all get in the way of communication," Dr. Vaughan says. "But nothing
scrambles communication more than ego."
When doctors and staff forget to be people-people and instead act like pet-people, problems arise, says Dr. Vaughan. "Unconfirmed
messages, assumptions, no follow-ups, surprises about bills, differences between prognosis and outcome, and bad news being
broken last instead of first is an indication of a problem."
Double-check that you're not interrupting conversations, finishing sentences, or substituting others' thoughts instead of
listening, Dr. Vaughan says. It's key that clients feel you understand their concerns and respect them and their animals.
Take-away tips
Make sure you're interacting with both pets and people. And use these communication strategies to minimize your liability.
Get it right: Achieving informed consent
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- Make sure informed consent is actually informed. "Veterinarians like to teach scientific things, but informed consent doesn't mean telling clients the scientific details,"
says Lutz. "You need to give them the information they need to make a good decision." (For more, see "Achieving Informed Consent".)
- Record everything. "Veterinary medical boards will nail a veterinarian for records that aren't legible, or have missing or incomplete information,"
Lutz says. And it's critical, she says, to note the date and time of the pre-procedure informed consent. The best approach:
Have the client sign a form or even initial in the record that you went over everything with him or her.
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