Reduce liability risk when treating...elderly patients.

As a physician, you assume a certain amount of risk every time you go to work. Not the physical kind, like police officers or fire fighters face, but the economic kind--risk that you won't get paid for your services or, worse, that you'll be named in a costly and career-threatening malpractice suit. If you're a primary care physician, avoiding liability is especially tricky because you see an eclectic group of patients, each presenting a different set of legal hazards. In the following article--the first of a four-part-series--we discuss risks specific to the elderly and how to avoid them. Future articles will focus on liability pitfalls when treating children and adolescents, people with physical and mental handicaps, and patients with limited or no English proficiency.