Having to meet with the hospitals lawyer

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To avoid going into too many details, I am being asked to meet with the hospitals lawyer for a "possible compensable event" I have a little background on the issues (yea two separate ones:nailbiting:) one I know is certainly not my fault.... The second not my fault but I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions directed at me/my judgement. I was following orders but there was an adverse event despite following orders. Again I really don't feel comfortable giving details, but can someone please tell me what it is like I've never done this before and my stomach is in knots. There is a little he said she said too, I was told the patient claims I said something to them, that I definitely did not. But anywho, any advice? It's with my place of employments lawyer, not with any of the patients. Just not sure how these things go or how to prepare myself.

Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, Cardiac/Renal, Ortho,FNP.

One reason to keep insurance as an nurse. I wouldn't always count on the hospital. The other comment is right that the lawyer's job is to pence out distribution of liability amongst everyone involved. Usually, people know going after you "personally" is a pointless endeavor unless you actually did something you can't defend with hospital policy or law. In general, meeting with the hospital's atty's is the easy part. If you get deposed by the defendant's atty's that's a whole nuther story... Be honest, not opinionated, and just state facts. Be careful to NOT do what I do and try to "over explain" things. Less is more and "I can't recall" IS A REAL ANSWER.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Long ago in my career I had to do this. I was petrified, but it turned out I learned some things. And I am careful in my charting and practices more than ever. Like others said, it is a good thing really. Just be honest and tell only what you know for a fact. Give only information for which you are specifically asked.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

I have been deposed 3 separate times (YIKES!!) .... as a nurse educator with two different organizations (double YIKES!). I recall that the easiest part of the process was meeting with my employer's attorneys prior to the depositions. On the stress range, it certainly wasn't having fun with my BFF... but it was less anxiety producing than interviewing for a new job. They were calm and organized - asked me for specific detailed information and were totally OK when I told them that I didn't have the information &/or couldn't remember.

The employer's attorneys also helped me 'practice' for the deposition by asking me to respond to some questions that the plaintiff's attorney was likely to use. They helped me understand the best way to formulate an answer. They also helped me to recognize and deal with questions could be used to "bait" me into provoking a hasty or emotional response. That really helped.

In the end, I learned a lot about areas of potential liability for nurse educators.... but the actual depositions were very short (maybe 15-20 minutes) and anticlimactic.

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Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.
Thanks muno,

I realize this unfortunately after the fact. It was a patient whose surgeon is notorious for pain management issues and bleeding issues. And out of habit went along with the order because "those patients, more often than not have this issue"... As the song goes "if I could turn back time" good news patients alive, bad news, them putting words in my mouth isn't very good either :no:

I think in general, you can only answer the questions truthfully, but do not offer information unless it is pertinent to the question. In your previous post when you said there was no where to chart hourly rounds....There has to be. Even if you simply add a note in some "other" area. You must document everything. I was once deposed on a case where the family accused us of "never bathing their mother". She was in ICU for weeks and then on the floor. In their mind, bathing meant putting her in a bathtub and that is what they expected us to do somehow. When asked how I did mouth care, I described how I did it in my usual routine way (which followed hospital policy), and so even though there was no place to chart the details of "mouth care", since I was systematic about it and followed P&P I was able to answer the question. Often, depositions involve questions like this or wanting a statement in response to what the complaint is about. Just be as concise and clear as possible, fall back on hospital policy IF/WHEN appropriate, and do your best to not offer new info that is not a part of the questioning. I know it seems less than forthright to do the latter, but it can come back misconstrued and get you in trouble. So, just the facts mam, and only the facts.

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Specializes in GENERAL.
Don't give answers to anything not actually asked about. Don't bluff, if you don't know the answer then say you don't know.

Rules of Engagement:

Always tell the truth. Always be honest and forthwright. Always know that right makes might.

Always know that lawyers and hospitals will always throw you under the bus, if necessary. "That's what they do." (Geico)

Since we don't know the facts, that's about it.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. Young, old, in-between, very many of our charges are operating under some form of extremis and are likely to be hallucinating. Therefore, the fairly high probability of the patient telling a damning, inadvertent prevarication, that they can't be held accountable for, can be very disconcerting to say the least. And even though the rules say you can be held accountable for something that may never have happened in reality.

Can you feel the love, yet?

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Specializes in Huntingtons, LTC, Ortho, Acute Care.

Well luckily to my knowledge this wasn't even even a threat of a lawsuit, a patients insurance company had questions regarding the event, and as a proactive approach a whole board of people were present to find and fix the system break down. Hourly rounding while required where I work is a "document for exception" situation. Our policy is to round, but only to chart when an unusual event occurs. The real issue was due to the policy it "looks like" I never checked on this person when I in fact did. Hopefully I don't need to be deposed ever but I thank everyone for their insight, support, and advice. It is a horrible feeling when I never did that before. But actually once I let my guard down a little it was really a discussion on how "to fix" the problem that occurred. I was asked a few questions but nothing that made me alarmed and nothing exchanged seemed accusatory or pressing. They took notes of course, but that's only in case this springs up as an issue in the future they have everyone's thoughts from when the incident was still pretty fresh. Which I think in the end is an excellent approach only because I have read some of you saying you have been named to appear years after the fact and remember nothing. Just thought I'd give an update. Again thanks for the e-support I was really sick to my stomach over it!

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Specializes in Huntingtons, LTC, Ortho, Acute Care.

Like one of the outcomes is the IT department will be giving more computer training to the physician involved, the pharmacy is to flag unusual orders that fall outside of a parameter, and honestly that didn't have much for nursing to improve other than to tighten up documentation a little bit. I was never asked questions that made me feel I was being blamed or targeted. and once I felt comfortable I kinda dived into the discussion and explained if nurses don't have prescriptive authority (which we don't) so whenever someone gives a "nursing dose" essentially giving more or less than ordered (I know plenty of nurses that do that), then we are technically practicing medicine, we need dosage ranges and parameters for PRNs to protect the patients and the nurses. Because the DEA is watching nurses and narcotics closely and it's only a matter of time the cautious nurse that only gives 1/2 a ordered dose of something starts being looked at.

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Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.

This sounds like more of a root cause analysis process to me. I often run these but I almost never have counsel involved in that process since they would usually not have much to contribute.

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Specializes in Huntingtons, LTC, Ortho, Acute Care.
This sounds like more of a root cause analysis process to me. I often run these but I almost never have counsel involved in that process since they would usually not have much to contribute.

The lawyer there seemed to help with the wording invoked in possible new policy and procedure writing as well as identifying any events in itself potentially liable. She facilitated the discussion but did not really do very much beyond that. One important person from every department was present and the nurses that provides care. It wasn't really the best thing I ever had to do but it wasn't the ulcer inducing fiasco I imagined lol

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Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.

Sometimes hospitals involve counsel in these meetings so as to be able to claim work-product, attorney-client or other discovery protection if any litigation ensues. This is the reason why I always run these meetings under the auspices of my quality improvement or patient safety organization processes; to claim similar discovery protection.

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Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.
The lawyer there seemed to help with the wording invoked in possible new policy and procedure writing as well as identifying any events in itself potentially liable. She facilitated the discussion but did not really do very much beyond that. One important person from every department was present and the nurses that provides care. It wasn't really the best thing I ever had to do but it wasn't the ulcer inducing fiasco I imagined lol

Thank you for the updates. I appreciate this. A few times I have found myself really caring about what has happened to a poster. Also, it would be nice to know if our feedback was helpful. I learn a lot on this site.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Well luckily to my knowledge this wasn't even even a threat of a lawsuit, a patients insurance company had questions regarding the event, and as a proactive approach a whole board of people were present to find and fix the system break down. Hourly rounding while required where I work is a "document for exception" situation. Our policy is to round, but only to chart when an unusual event occurs. The real issue was due to the policy it "looks like" I never checked on this person when I in fact did. Hopefully I don't need to be deposed ever but I thank everyone for their insight, support, and advice. It is a horrible feeling when I never did that before. But actually once I let my guard down a little it was really a discussion on how "to fix" the problem that occurred. I was asked a few questions but nothing that made me alarmed and nothing exchanged seemed accusatory or pressing. They took notes of course, but that's only in case this springs up as an issue in the future they have everyone's thoughts from when the incident was still pretty fresh. Which I think in the end is an excellent approach only because I have read some of you saying you have been named to appear years after the fact and remember nothing. Just thought I'd give an update. Again thanks for the e-support I was really sick to my stomach over it!

Sometimes these things are like a person-to-person incident report. They need information from you in order to find the holes in the system and fix them, before someone gets accused of something.

It's really more about being part of the quality control process than being thrown under the bus. But nurses so frequently get thrown under the bus that it's hard not to be anxious when something like this comes up.

Glad it went well.

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