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| Contracts and Professional Liability Insurance Policy |
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by Bob Blumm, MA, PA-C, DFAAPA - September 19, 2011
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Senior PAs are often contacted when former students find themselves in “practice problems.” This communication is an example of a practice problem and a solution.
A former student has been working for a physician group for the past three years and is obliged to work at two practice locations seeing thirty patients at each. The PA has been instructed to spend no more than seven minutes on each patient, and this is only one of her problems. During our conversation, I discovered that there was no on site supervision and telephone communication had been discouraged when questions surfaced, as the PA was chided for lacking necessary knowledge or intuitiveness in dealing with the problem. No physician in the group has checked a sampling of her charts since serving in this position. The salary promised was not delivered, and she has worked for eight dollars less per hour. The malpractice insurance promised was not appropriated, and she is on a group rider with a poor company. This situation has been ongoing, and no corrections have been made. She has been threatened with a poor reference letter if she leaves the practice.
Why are professional clinicians so ignorant when dealing with a set of negatives like I am presenting? These all represent an unsafe practice environment, lack of supervision, failure to comply with an oral contract, a standard of care that is severely lacking as well as an ever increasing opportunity to be the victim of a malpractice suit without the liability insurance that offers protection for her as an individual. I counseled her to terminate her employment immediately regardless of the threats. Contacting OPMC is a possibility, and legal advice may be required. This advice will be costly, as she has no liability policy that offers her counsel and guidance.
How can other young PAs prevent themselves from being found negligent of a standard of care and being totally unprotected by a personal professional liability policy?
My message to all PAs is to have a written contract establishing responsibilities, supervision, salary, hours, vacations and time off, sick pay, CME support and personal Professional Liability Insurance. This is a necessary acquisition for all PAs and should be entered into with pride as it bespeaks intelligent business practices. To do anything else is to flirt with problems and allegations THAT CANNOT BE ERASED BY TOUCHING A DELETE BUTTON. Plan and protect your future with a contract and an individual professional liability insurance policy.
Robert M. Blumm has received national recognition as a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). He is the past president of the Association of Plastic Surgery Physician Assistants, and was past-president of the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants, past president of the American College of Clinicians and NYSSPA, as well as Chairman of the Surgical Congress of the AAPA. In addition, Bob received the John Kirklin MD Award for Professional Excellence from the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants. Along with his associate, Dr. Acker, Bob was the first recipient of the AAPA PAragon Physician-PA Partnership Award. He has been a contributing author of three textbooks, written 300 plus articles and is a sought out conference speaker throughout the United States.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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