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Browse the WPS April 2022 Newsletter!
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Spring 2022 Issue
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April 12: PRMS Psych-cess: Emergency Psychiatry
PRMS Psych-cess: Emergency Psychiatry is today and may be of interest to your resident, fellow, and early career psychiatrist members! Psych-cess will take place via Zoom today, April 12, 6:30-7:30 pm ET, and will feature emergency psychiatry specialist, Tony Thrasher, DO, DFAPA, who will lead a discussion sharing more about the specialty and how he chose to make it his career and reach his current roles. Please feel free to share the attached flyer with your members, along with the registration link to sign up for free.
Malpractice and Liability in Psychiatry Textbook
PRMS is proud to congratulate our talented risk managers on an exciting accomplishment! Our Director of Risk Management, Donna Vanderpool, MBA, JD, and Associate Director of Risk Management, Dave Cash, JD, LLM, each contributed a chapter in the new textbook, “Malpractice and Liability in Psychiatry.” Get your copy here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91975-7
May 22: PRMS New Orleans Reception
If you are attending the Annual Meeting, please stop by to say hello and enjoy sips, snacks, and live music during our co-hosted reception with the Southern Psychiatric Association on Sunday, May 22, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm CT at The Chicory in New Orleans. We have missed seeing everyone and look forward to catching up in person! Family and friends are always welcome. Please RSVP here.
April Fact vs. Fiction Resource
You’ve been treating a 10-year-old patient for a number of months. He has always been brought in by his father, who has told you he is divorced from the mother, and that she is no longer involved in the patient’s life. Out of the blue you get a call from the patient’s mother who just found out that you are treating her son, and is upset about the medication you are prescribing. She demands a copy of the child’s record. When you explain to her that the father had given consent for the medications, she tells you she and the father have joint decision-making authority for all medical care. She further tells you she wants to be involved in her son’s care, but the father is preventing this. She offers to send you a copy of the custody order. You contact the father who assures you that he is the one with sole physical custody, and only he can consent to release of the record; he also tells you that nothing in the custody order changes that and there’s no need for you to review the order.
What do you think - fact or fiction?
ANSWER: Fiction!
You need to see the custody order as it will likely spell out which parent(s) must consent to treatment, and who can access the patient’s record. Typically, unless parental rights have been terminated, both parents can access treatment information, even a parent without custody. If parents are in disagreement over consent to treatment and/or release of treatment information, and these issues are not addressed in the order, the parents should seek resolution from their attorneys.
Psychiatrists treating minors may want to consider the following:
- When a new appointment is made for a new patient who is a minor, ask if the parents are divorced. If so, advise that a copy of the custody order will need to be brought to the first appointment. Without the order, the psychiatrist may not be able to see the patient because there is no proof that the parent bringing the minor has the legal authority to consent to treatment.
- Manage the expectations of all parties. Explain your process for keeping parents informed about their child’s treatment.
