Even when you shut off the lights to your practice and go home at night, you could be at risk for committing malpractice if your answering service handles after-hours calls inappropriately, according to New York malpractice attorney Lee J. Johnson, Esq.

"The answering service is regarded as the agent of the doctor," Johnson stated in a video posted on Medscape Today. "Therefore, you are responsible for selection, training and monitoring the service." So, for example, if a patient calls with a headache and says it is not an emergency, but later is diagnosed with cerebral aneurysm, you are responsible for the answering service's decision not to call you, and may find yourself defending its actions (and your career) in court.

What's more, Johnson says, if the service has shown a previous pattern of not calling right away, not dating and timing the calls, calling the wrong doctor, transposing numbers or garbling messages, a plaintiff's attorney could allege that you were negligent in not correcting the problem.

She recommends the following steps to avoid these risks:

• Use a live person vs. a machine to answer calls. Train operators to first ask patients if the call is an emergency.
• Make sure operators know who is on call and have full contact information for that individual, and perhaps a backup physician if the on-call physician cannot be reached.
• Be available, not just physically, but with your attitude. Never let the operators feel that their primary job is to deflect all calls away from your attention.
• Don't allow the operators to diagnose or prescribe medications or treatment. Instruct them to tell patients to call 911 or go to the ED if you cannot get back to the patient in a reasonable time.

To learn more:
- read this article or view the video on Medscape Today

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