Archives for January 2020

2020 marks the third year that Susanne Raab and Brenda Osmond will be teaching the course in Medical Negligence Law as adjunct professors at the University of British Columbia.  Representing patients who have been injured as a result of medical negligence is the only work we do at Pacific Medical Law and we are excited to share our knowledge and experience with the students.

This year, the class is filled to capacity with 30 second and third-year law students registered in the course.  Over the term, Susanne and Brenda walk students through issues of professional negligence concerning physicians, other health care professionals, and hospitals. The classes focus on helping students develop an understanding of the components of a medical malpractice action. The course considers issues of the doctor-patient relationship, consent, standard of care and causation, and explores practical issues that arise in medical malpractice actions, including the nature and function of expert witnesses, the use of documentation and difficulties of proof.  At the end of the course, students write a comprehensive exam to demonstrate their ability to identify and analyze legal issues relating to physicians, other health care professionals, and hospitals.

Although some of the students in the class have a background in health care, most enroll to broaden their exposure to different areas of the law.  Given we are one of the very few law firms in Canada that practice exclusively in the field of plaintiff medical malpractice and birth injury, Susanne and Brenda are happy to share their expertise with law students. Our goal in teaching the course is to provide students with insight into this unique and specialized area of practice, and maybe even inspire future medical negligence lawyers!

Three members of the Pacific Medical Law Team attended the 36^th Annual Obstetrics, Gynecology, Perinatal Medicine, Neonatology and the Law Conference organized by Dr. Aubrey Milunsky and Dr. Jeff Milunsky in January of this year.

The conference was designed for and offered presentations by, a diverse group of legal and health care specialists. Renowned experts in a number of different medical and legal fields presented on topics within their areas of expertise. Presentation topics included:

• What are the different types of strokes in a newborn and what causes them?
• What can genetic testing tell us about a child’s disability?
• How long should the second stage (the “pushing” stage) of labor go and how has medical knowledge advanced in this area?
• Should women be induced if they don’t go into labor by 39 weeks?
• How safe is open surgery versus minimally invasive surgery versus surgery using robotics?
• How safe is a natural delivery after a prior cesarean section?
• How is gestational diabetes supposed to be managed?
• What are the potential complications that should be considered when pregnant women present with abdominal pain, bleeding, or trauma?
• How can physicians properly prevent, diagnose and treat infection during pregnancy or post-delivery?

The goals of the conference are to teach medical professionals to better understand how to avoid medical negligence and to teach legal professionals about the complex issues encountered in the practice of medicine. Presentations regarding different medical fields, issues, and advancements allowed our team to update our knowledge of the current state of medicine in these areas and what is expected of medical professionals encountering a range of scenarios.

At Pacific Medical Law we are committed to maintaining our knowledge in a range of medical specialties, including obstetrics, gynecology, and neonatology. We believe that understanding the most up-to-date medicine can help us obtain the best results for our clients in medical malpractice lawsuits.

In late November 2019, Paul McGivern, K.C. joined two other top medical negligence lawyers from across Canada to share their knowledge with about 250 Alberta nurses.  The all-day conference, presented in Calgary and Edmonton, was entitled Documentation: Your Best Defence. The program was aimed at educating nurses about the critical importance of documentation – with the dual purposes of promoting patient safety and helping nurses understand what lawyers look for when they review medical records. 

Paul and his colleagues shared their experiences using landmark legal cases as their starting point.  By using these real-life examples in which medical record documentation was carefully considered by the courts, the nurses were able to see how their work, and how they document their work, can be critical evidence in a medical negligence lawsuit.

According to Chris Rokosh, legal nurse consultant and president of Connect Medical Legal Experts, the conference was very well received by all of the nurses in attendance.  All of the participants said they would recommend the course to a colleague, and nearly everyone said they were going to make changes to their documentation practices based on what they learned. They found the use of real case scenarios to be a real eye-opener, bringing into focus the critical importance of documentation in the care of their patients.