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BEING A CONSULTANT

As attorneys become more sophisticated about team medical care delivery, plaintiffs are increasingly suing consultants. Hospital and laboratory-based consultants commonly assume that they work for the physician who orders the tests. Legally, this is not so: physician consultants who do individual patient evaluations for the welfare of the patient enter a physician-patient relationship, with all its attendant duties. If a consultant relies on the treating physician to communicate with the patient, the consultant is liable if the patient does not receive the necessary information. The consultant must balance the conflicting roles of adviser to both patient and treating physician. This can lead to some difficult decisions for the consultant when an attending physician does not follow recommendations. Consequently, a consultant must be as careful in choosing which physicians to consult for as an attending physician must be in choosing consultants.

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