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can family doctors do skin testing for allergies?


olecranon

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One would have to protect oneself by first getting adequate training in the area (something I know nothing about), describing oneself as a family physician who is also practicing in allergy testing (or some similar wording), having adequate equipment and safety measures in place to resuscitate people with anaphylactic reactions including intubation etc., etc. etc.

 

Sounds like a lot of headache but I suppose in theory it could be done.

 

And yes, I think in a court of law, if they were critically looking at your work, the court would likely bring in someone practicing standard of care, which I believe most people would conclude to be an immunologist / allergist since that is what they have been trained to do specifically (compared to family medicine residency, which ordinarily provides zero training on how to do allergy testing).

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Guest copacetic

legally any physician can do anything any other physician does. Thats what the MD is for. But then comes the question of board licensing and expertise. If you're not specifically trained to do something and mess it up the malpractice consequences would hurt.

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But that's only if you can show in court that allergy testing is the area of a specialist, and not a family doc.

 

Maybe? I am not a lawyer.

 

Actually it is more that they proved they were capable to do the test, and they in fact do the procedure up to standard. Specialists (which I guess to be exactly FM is a specialty) don't own particular procedures etc. There isn't anything wrong with a FM doc doing a lot of things legally. As others have pointed out the insurance aspect can be a bit tricky but even that is not a real barrier in a lot of cases.

 

With FM in particular there is wide overlap with other things. I have seen them run/read EKGs, do allergy testing, all manner of things dermatological, and of course delivery babies, do anesthesia, surgical assisting......

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If you're not specifically trained to do something and mess it up the malpractice consequences would hurt.

 

This raises an interesting point. I don't know an awful lot about malpractice insurance, so can anyone shed some light on what's covered for a GP? Are you basically covered for everything provided that you can prove in court that no dereliction occurred? Or are there some sort of limitations? E.g. if you are a GP who did NOT do a +1 in obs, are you still covered if you end up delivering a baby in your rural ER?

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If you are an FP doing OB, your premiums will be adjusted accordingly. If you state on your CMPA application that you don't do obstetrics (and hence get a lower rate) but deliver a baby and get sued, you're on your own. CMPA will generally cover what is considered "scope" of a family doctor.

 

See: http://www.cmpa-acpm.ca

 

Would this not change if you were delivering from a rural ER in an emergency birth?

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If you are an FP doing OB, your premiums will be adjusted accordingly. If you state on your CMPA application that you don't do obstetrics (and hence get a lower rate) but deliver a baby and get sued, you're on your own. CMPA will generally cover what is considered "scope" of a family doctor.

 

See: http://www.cmpa-acpm.ca

 

But if you're an FP who routinely covers the ED, then your CMPA code is likely 73 or 82. I would think you'd be covered if it was an emergency delivery (eg baby is crowning when mom shows up in the ED).

 

On the other hand, if you were like "meh we've got lots of time, I got this one don't wake up the L&D doc I'll just deliver her when the baby pops out in an hour or so" and something went horrible wrong and you weren't paying premiums for code 78 then you'd be SOL.

 

Or at least that's my reading of the fee schedule.

 

http://www.cmpa-acpm.ca/cmpapd04/docs/membership/fees/2011cal-e.pdf

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But if you're an FP who routinely covers the ED, then your CMPA code is likely 73 or 82. I would think you'd be covered if it was an emergency delivery (eg baby is crowning when mom shows up in the ED).

 

On the other hand, if you were like "meh we've got lots of time, I got this one don't wake up the L&D doc I'll just deliver her when the baby pops out in an hour or so" and something went horrible wrong and you weren't paying premiums for code 78 then you'd be SOL.

 

Or at least that's my reading of the fee schedule.

 

http://www.cmpa-acpm.ca/cmpapd04/docs/membership/fees/2011cal-e.pdf

 

This is basically what I was going to say, but got too lazy to finish it in the middle of typing.

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