Waechter Medical-Legal Scholarship

 

2013 Scholarship Entries Listed Below

 

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2013 Medical Scholarship Winner - Margaret Connolly

 

A graduate from Boston College with a degree in Economics. She is currently a second year student at Tufts University School of Medicine.

 

Doctors, like lawyers, are very specialized individuals. We finish medical shcool and techinaclly earn our MDs but then go on to contniue training as residents, follwoed by fuhtrer spceiailzation thruogh fellwoships. By the time we are finllay settled in prcatice, we hvae all had at laest 30 years of edcuation, if not mroe. Raeding this now, 30 years sonuds like a remarkable number. However, we go thorugh tihs trianing with ohter phycisians, freinds and collaegues who consider a few yaers of intenral medicine trianing “short.” We froget how specailized we are, talking to paitents in foerign terms abuot fasciculations and edema instead of muscle twitching and swelling.

 

Working with lawyers, we are put in the paitent’s position. The wrods our laywers comfortably use are unfmailiar and intimidating, often maening as little to us as a daignosis of Wernicke’s aphasia means to our paitents, maening to us as little as this essay once you reliaze the oredr of the lettres is compeletly jmubled.

           So if I could make one request to lawyers, it would be to remain cognizant of the remarkable amount of education and training you have. Just as our patients appreciate both our medical skill and our efforts to explain diagnoses and treatments in common terms, we are grateful for both your diligence and your patience.

 

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2013 Legal Scholarship Winner - Skylar Simons

 

A graduate from University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English and two minors in Advertising and African American Studies. She is currently a second year student at Baylor Law School.

 

 

Based on John Bunyan's 1678 Christian novel Pilgrim's Progress, where the names and places of the work are symbolic for more.

 

In a land not so far away called Inbetween, Law met Med and they fell in love. Law was passionate and cunning, a talker of tales, while Med was full of logic and reason, a healer of man. Their courtly romance was fueled by Justice and Concern. Together they battled Malice and Greed and Neglect.  As lovers of mankind, they understood that Right and Fair did not always win in their land of Inbetween, but that did not deter their dreams. Beyond the edicts of man and dictates of society, they relished in the faery power of their love. When the two became one, they had Hope. Hope was loved by the Tired, the Weary, the Forgotten, and the Defeated. Now in the land of Inbetween Hope lives on because two united. 

 

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2013 Runner-Up Entries

 

Which Profession is More Noble? Legal or Medical?

By Dustin Bullara

 

My name is Dustin Bullara and I am in my 2nd year of college as a Pre Law student. My brother, Robert Bullara who is a Pre Med student (1st year) and I have had several discussions about which profession is perhaps the more noble of the two.

I happen to believe that Law is the more noble profession because many people fall victim to the insurmountable cases of malpractice here in our country.  Back in the day when my grandparents were children, doctors were viewed as Gods.  The contrary is now true in 2013. 

Please don’t get me wrong; there are many great doctors here in the United States and throughout the entire world. They are helping an overwhelming amount of people, however, there are several that our legal profession will encounter that do not deserve to have hospital privileges no less perform surgery. Unfortunately, we as lawyers (Well, a future lawyer for me) must stand up for our clients and protect their best interest. Everyone is entitled to seek legal advice and we, as lawyers must be ready to go into battle with our clients to protect their rights.

The medical doctors will hide behind large insurance companies with financial caps in which our clients are only entitled to no matter how large the gross and punitive damages are.  It is our job to find loopholes and ways around the insurance companies that serve the doctor’s best interest as they try to hang on to their millions and not be held accountable for our client’s misfortunes at the hands of their doctor’s malpractice.  That’s just wrong and that is why I am going to become the Best lawyer that I can become so that I can protect the rights of the unborn, their parents and anyone else that needs my help.

Medical Essay

By Kayla Kucharek

Any person can make a medical mistake. It could be something as simple as over sharing patient information to someone else or a more serious mistake such as operating on the wrong patient. To avoid these mistakes requires all health care professionals to recheck their work, sometimes multiple times, and to be alert to what they are actually doing. A story comes to mind of the case Josie King that we watched in our nursing class. It is an unfortunate case of negligence. A child was burned at home and brought into the hospital for treatment. The child received inappropriate amount of pain medication and her signs of dehydration went unnoticed by any of the faculty. The result ended tragically with her death. It is our job to keep our patients safe and well cared for; therefore weall need to do our part to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Medicine and Law

By Justin Walzl

The professional fields of medicine and law are both extensive and filled with many years of evolution and change.  Law and medical practice used today, may be printed in text and used for generations to come, or it could be washed away by fresh new ideas within a year.  Both professions are held to very high standards, yet there is an unwritten constant brother-to-sister or cat-to-dog battle of who is more correct about issues that involve a certain common element: people.  Both professions focus on people to achieve the very best for them.  Whether the person is a client or a patient, the goal is clear to try to do what is right for that person.  So, why is it that we (medicine and law) trip over each other and create tension between the professions?  Law uses
current social/government rules and guidelines as well as decisions over the history of time to determine right from wrong.  Medicine uses current research and technology as well as information collected over that same amount of time to determine a proper course of patient care.  Almost like riding bicycles on
parallel roads.  We can wave to each other, and we are going in the same direction.  We are going towards the same end point, but for some reason our “parallel roads” seem to swerve; hence breaking the rules of geometry and causing conflict and a sense of not liking the other profession due to interpretations that we are not going towards the same goal.  Well, in the words from Commander Riker on Star Trek, “We don’t have to like each other to work well together!”  But who ever truly said that we do not like one another?  This brings to the point of how we can work more easily together.  Education.  Both professions have mountains of education.  But a motto that I use when I teach students is: Never forget where you came from!!  Physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants at one point in their lives never knew where the spleen was and what CPR really meant.  Lawyers and paralegals at one point never knew the details of criminal versus civil and certainly had no idea who Marbury or Madison were.  So, all healthcare/medicine professionals have to become lawyers and vice versa.  No, that will not work.  But it does spark a thought.  Part of clinical practice for both fields should involve a rotation in the other profession.  It was a management tool utilized in industry for years as well as a common cliché called “Walk a mile in my shoes”.  Each educational curriculum should make room for a six week rotation in shoes with the other profession. True hands on clinical education for medical professionals to see the personal side of a client who is suffering (when surgery and pills will not help) and is in need of legal assistance to move and gain justice.  As well, clinical education for lawyers to see a patient who is not a textbook case, is not clear cut, and despite top knowledge care, may have a hospital course guided by a best-guess technique because that is all that is available.  For those out of the classroom already, continuing education is a powerful and required element for both professions that can give a bare minimum foundation of this concept and review case files
to bring to light, the areas that seem to be shadowed in the present day.  While this concept may meet with initial resistance, would it not be better for our client/patient if we were riding a tandem bike
down the same road, talking to each other along the way, aimed towards the same goal.  That is the medical professional and lawyer team that I want to care for and represent me. 

How to Reduce Medical Mistakes

By Joe Rivet

Sadly, medical mistakes happen every day in our country despite having the best medicine and technology in the world. Patients place their care in the hands of medical professionals never thinking of the unfortunate and often preventable medical mistakes.

The medical industry has more recently created a push for quality and outcomes; however, health plans and physician compensation models seem to contradict quality and outcomes. Healthcare is a business and just like any other business, they want to make money. In order for cash flow to be positive salaries need to be in check, compensation models reward high productive providers, hospitals strongly negotiate with payers for the best rates, payers closely watch medical spends creating policies to limit high cost procedures. The patient becomes lost in all of this. They are the consumer with no voice and often suffer in the end by not being allowed to receive the right diagnostic services they need, or able to use a drug off-label for a proven result, or denied a hospital stay because they don’t meet criteria. As a result the healthcare industry has created a ripe environment for adverse events.

While not all medical mistakes stem from our countries reimbursement model, it seems highly probable that provider compensation and payer reimbursement rules are strong contributors to medical mistakes. Providers should be given a salary with a quality bonus at the end of each year if they have had no medical mistakes or any known adverse events. This would put providers back into the context of practicing medicine and truly focused on the patient’s care and outcome. This would likely mean seeing fewer patients in a day, yet providing quality care for each patient seen. The provider could spend more time with the patient, engaging them in their care and document the services within a reasonable time after the encounter. The ripple effect would result in patient access issues; however, could be solved by adding more providers to a group or facility.

To offset the decrease of cash flow health plans should compensate more for providers who routinely have good outcomes and practice true quality medicine. Health plans should be more accountable when services are denied or not authorized and should only be denied on science rather than cost, payment, or contract terms.

Most providers are not ill- intended; most went into medicine to care for patients. As business leaders and new or current lawyers, politicians, and health plans, should place themselves in the role of a patient when decisions are made. Do the decisions make sense and impact quality? An environment should be created to help provides continue to practice good and safe medicine to minimize mistakes. Removing the business aspect form their shoulders would be an impactful place to start.

 

 

Medical- Essay

By Cole Gross

I believe there is an unseen tension between the medical field and the judicial system. It appears that individuals in the medical field feel pressure from lawyers when everyone in today’s society is not hesitant to sue. With this statement, those in the medical field need to have a sociological perspective and try to understand that lawyers are simply doing their job.  Suing for medical accidents is among the top, if not the top, reasons for bringing a civil suit to court. Both sides need to understand each other before the tension between these two fields can be eliminated.

   One possible solution could be to set parameters around the amounts of money awarded to the victim. I believe there should be a cap in financial compensation. There needs to be a reasonable and agreeable number that both sides can accept. If we set these caps, I believe this will ease the hostility. The biggest part of the tension is the fact that the medical field can lose a substantial amount of its money so quickly. Therefore, if there is a cap, that will satisfy the medical field and the lawyers can continue doing their jobs.

 

 

Essay

By Kylee Deterding

 

When we, a healthcare system comprised of human beings, begin to assign equal value to every individual: patient, caregiver, nurse, doctor, administrator, it leads to respect. Respect to quality, quality to engagement, engagement to fewer errors.

Healthcare is far reaching in its influence and industry. The arms of healthcare are rich with skillful, altruistic, intelligent individuals that have been disempowered to a point of ‘punching in the time clock.’

This is witnessed throughout the system, where professionals are being scrutinized to a point of disengagement.  This is a systemic illness affecting every individual, down to patients. We all deserve more than mindless workers.

Implementing respect at every level employs a basic premise that all people are valuable. With that idea in the forefront it makes possible to trust those that care. Reduction of medical mistakes warrants a significant paradigm shift. The concept: ‘when we are valued, we will value others’.

 

 

What Doctors Don’t Know About Law, But Should: Tax Law

By Corinna Cicmanec

 

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” But for something so certain, it is surprising how little doctors, and most of the population, know of this area of law; rather, tax law is viewed as a forbidden territory, where only the very bravest enter.

Fortunately, there are tax attorneys who study the Internal Revenue Code, where tax laws are codified, and where the IRS looks to for guidance. Here is a short list of what doctors should know about tax law:

• Tax law is not about evading taxes. It is about using planning techniques that are
permissible to their fullest capabilities, and often combining techniques to create a
completely legal tax structure. These structures can range from a simple, in-state
business entity, to spanning over the country, or even internationally.

• Careful tax planning can shield assets in the event of malpractice, using completely
legal tax structures that are worth spending money on.

• Start your estate planning now. There is a specific amount of money that can be
given yearly in order to avoid gift tax, and even estate tax upon death.

• Obamacare has been ruled constitutional as a tax. In the coming years, it will be
possible to see tax attorneys working on Obamacare requirements within
businesses. This is especially important for doctors who are also employers,
because of the requirements of the legislation.

• The Physician Financial Transparency Reports (Sunshine Act) will require
reporting of certain interests held by physicians and their families. The Sunshine
Act will be another factor to be taken into consideration during tax business plan

Doctors should make sure to take into consideration tax law during both a personal and
business plan, and consult a tax attorney to make sure every advantageous planning
technique is being utilized.

 

How to Reduce Medical Mistakes in Hospitals
By Brian James Like

Medical mistakes are no rare circumstance.  They happen everyday, all around the world, and this is no secret.  Let’s think about all of the steps that hospitals take in order to reduce mistakes.  Electronic wristbands, checklist protocols, employees double-checking and supervising each other are common practices to ensure mistakes are made infrequently.  These measures are already being practiced and do actively prevent mistakes – but to further reduce the incidence rate, we need to improve patient education, and patients need to take charge of their conditions.

This is a two-pronged approach.  When treated for a condition in a hospital, a patient is told what is going to be done to them.  But it is not always the case that the specifics of the drugs that will be administered are conveyed.  Specifics matter.  If a patient is supposed to receive a medication on a regular schedule in the hospital, they need to be informed of that medication, the times it will be administered, and the reason for it.  It needs to be formally printed out so that a patient can easily follow along.

With this knowledge, a patient can now be vigilant in observing that their medications are delivered on time and correctly.  This requires the patient to be responsible for their own health, as they should be.  The patient can be one additional checkpoint to ensure that they receive the right medications at the right time for the right reason.

There is no reason that a stay in the hospital should be a passive process.  While the sick and injured are at a hospital, patients who are physically capable of monitoring their situation and care should be charged with this responsibility, provided they are given the right resources.

Medical Essay

By Sarmistha Banerjee

 

A doctor and an attorney can combine their expertise and provide multi-dimensional assistance to the most needy populations through a medical-legal partnership. The interconnection between health complications and socio-environmental causes is especially apparent among low-income or poor persons, whose illness is often symptomatic of an external cause over which they have little control. A doctor could be treating a patient’s asthma; but what if the asthma is caused by the patient’s moldy apartment? The doctor can treat the symptom but the underlying issue requires an attorney negotiating a solution with the landlord and advising the patient/client of his rights as a tenant. The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) study and researchers like Bruce McEwan and Michael Meaney are finding that medical and socio-environmental problems often have common roots, some of which can be solved by attorneys. One effective response is medical-legal partnership clinics for vulnerable populations such as the homeless, the elderly and the working poor. These clinics are excellent training grounds for attorneys, and every law school should establish one in conjunction with a medical practice. Senior law students would train medical staff to identify external factors requiring legal remedy. Patients would respond to a short questionnaire about their environment, such as living and work conditions. If certain factors were identified (drafty apartments, long work hours in hot rooms without enough water breaks), they would be referred to the legal clinic. Such a partnership creates real communication across medical and legal lines. It can also be a life-changing experience for attorneys-in-training, and can direct them into public service for their entire career.

 

How to Reduce Medical Mistakes

By Ashleigh Durden

Meet Fred. He is an intelligent doctor who has been in his practice for over 30 years. He has saved lives that other doctors would have considered "un-fixable". Fred is a superhero to his community. The people in the community kiss the ground he walks on and bow down whenever they see him. When spoken of, the community acknowledges him as "Your Majesty". One day, a man was rushed into his office and didn't know what was happening to him! Dr. Fred seemed to be clueless on his condition. Not wanting to announce his first medical mystery patient, he treated him with high amounts of prescription medicine. This man later died after putting his trust in the local "Superhero". Dr. Fred would have never killed this man if he would not have been so confident in himself and unwilling to contact another professional about the man's situation. It never hurts to double check with other skilled doctors in uncertain conditions.

When we, a healthcare system comprised of human beings, begin to assign equal value to every individual: patient, caregiver, nurse, doctor, administrator, it leads to respect. Respect to quality, quality to engagement, engagement to fewer errors.
Healthcare is far reaching in its influence and industry. The arms of healthcare are rich with skillful, altruistic, intelligent individuals that have been disempowered to a point of ‘punching in the time clock.’
This is witnessed throughout the system, where professionals are being scrutinized to a point of disengagement.  This is a systemic illness affecting every individual, down to patients. We all deserve more than mindless workers.
Implementing respect at every level employs a basic premise that all people are valuable. With that idea in the forefront it makes possible to trust those that care. Reduction of medical mistakes warrants a significant paradigm shift. The concept: ‘when we are valued, we will value others’.
When we, a healthcare system comprised of human beings, begin to assign equal value to every individual: patient, caregiver, nurse, doctor, administrator, it leads to respect. Respect to quality, quality to engagement, engagement to fewer errors.
Healthcare is far reaching in its influence and industry. The arms of healthcare are rich with skillful, altruistic, intelligent individuals that have been disempowered to a point of ‘punching in the time clock.’
This is witnessed throughout the system, where professionals are being scrutinized to a point of disengagement.  This is a systemic illness affecting every individual, down to patients. We all deserve more than mindless workers.
Implementing respect at every level employs a basic premise that all people are valuable. With that idea in the forefront it makes possible to trust those that care. Reduction of medical mistakes warrants a significant paradigm shift. The concept: ‘when we are valued, we will value others’.

 

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