Is it Safe to Treat Patients Alone?

So as a healthcare worker, you oftentimes are treating patients alone. In today's world, you worry sometimes about the potential liability or problems that you might face from those types of situations. In this video, I'm going to share with you some tips to help you sleep at night while you serve your patients. Coming right up.

Hey providers, welcome back. In today's video, we're gonna be talking about Freedom from Fear. Every week I make videos to help you increase your income, your impact, and your freedom. And so if you're new to this channel, please consider hitting that subscribe button that makes it possible for me to continue making these videos. So to be really clear, I am not a lawyer. I am not about to give legal advice, nor should this video be construed as such. And as a private practice owner with multiple locations for over 15 years, I had to worry about this very situation, not just for myself as a provider, but my team at large. So here are some things that I've learned about situations when we are alone with our patients. Remember, in those situations there's an increased liability because if we're not careful, it becomes a matter of their word against yours as to what occurs. So whatever that liability might be, we're going to go through some tips to help you right away. Tip number Whenever possible, don't be alone. I know that sounds like an obvious one, and your situation or circumstance may not allow you to have this option, but there are a lot of little things you can do most of the time to help mitigate those situations. You can schedule multiple people to close a clinic at the end of the day so that one person's not left alone with the patient. You can also make sure that you talk to your employer and I would invite all of you to do that who feel uncomfortable in discussing your concerns. He or she may have some advice and some ideas to help you in their own practice. Avoid those situations. Tip number two when you are alone with patients, make sure to keep your communication and your visit as professional as possible. Obviously you're going to be professional with your patients all the time, but when you are alone with them, you want to keep your communication really specifically professional. So you may not want to go into as much developing that personal relationship, talking about friends, family, weekend type stuff, because in those moments when we're being casual with our conversation, even if it's appropriate, it can be misconstrued or something can be taken the wrong way. The biggest thing I've learned is to be very mindful when you're joking with patients as A matter of fact, there's very few circumstances where that is appropriate, even though it is in a physical therapy setting common to be able to have a lighter atmosphere when we're communicating with our patients. Humor misplaced can oftentimes lead to liability. And so that leads me to tip number three, to document anything that's questionable. When you're with a patient, you can document the plan of care and the visit progression, but anytime a patient says anything that's even borderline, you want to make sure to correct them and to be able to document it. Sometimes that can be a little awkward, but it'd be better for you to have that situation documented. And that way, when your note is reviewed later by a professional, they can clearly see that you are mindful of the communication if there ever is an issue that arises. So many times we find ourselves in that position with our patients where they're the ones who are being highly unprofessional with their discussions. So remember that there's certain topics that are completely off limits when we're talking to our patients and other times when we just need to keep it professional. Those are the three main things that I used to teach my team members, and it was amazing how that helped them feel comfortable to focus on being the professionals they are to provide the care that is needed. So what am I missing? I would love to hear from you. What are things that you can do to help avoid any potential liability from those types of situations? Thank you again for watching. Until next time.