Practice guidelines take center court: how to limit liability.

Abstract

An unintended result of practice guidelines, meant to codify and streamline high-quality patient care, is their role in the courtroom: to attack or to defend the delivery of medical care to athletes. Researchers predict that patients' attorneys will make greater use of practice guidelines in malpractice claims. The best tactic sports medicine physicians can use to prevent claims is to become familiar with and adopt applicable practice guidelines. Also, physicians need to know when they're deviating from the guidelines and how to defend such decisions.