That is Risk Management Jeopardy Champion Owen Muir, M.D.
Reflections on risk management
I have previously written about my enthusiasm for Risk Management. I adore my awesome medical malpractice carrier, PRMS. We had risk management jeopardy today, and I am thrilled to announce I was the winner—with some stiff competition!
It is not just that I love appropriate rules and regulations, it’s that they protect patients. And I love advocating for risk mitigation for patients.
Every once in a while, it's worth sharing if you keep do’s and don'ts, as I learned on risk management jeopardy!
Tip #1 Obtain and Document Informed Consent
Do: keep an appropriate record of informed consent. Provide guidance to your patients about the risks and benefits of treatments. Medication guides can be found via the FDA here!
My regular readers will know that this paywall…oh, it’s going to be juicy stuff behind it. You know you want to see the rest. It is absolutely as dumb as you imagine. I promise…but it's paywall only here. Too spicy to post otherwise.
Don’t: fail to obtain informed consent for activities that are themselves criminal in your jurisdiction, like using patient testimonials in New York State— (and yes, this is a screenshot from just now in the context of active litigation about this very topic):
Tip #2: Claims Must Be Verifiable
Do: Follow state and federal law related to medical advertising:
(c) Advertising or other publicity by physicians, including participation in public functions, shall not contain puffery, self-laudation, claims regarding the quality of the physician's medical services, or claims that cannot be measured or verified.
(In case it is not clear, poking fun of one’s self is much more in keeping with appropriate standards than, and this is a legal term, “puffery.”)
Don’t: do the opposite of the law, and make extravagant claims (From an FTC enforcement action):
Claims should be verifiable! Not the opposite.
Tip #3: Reputation Management
Do: Take steps to encourage positive reviews from colleagues while taking care to never solicit or respond to reviews from patients. If you have significant means, and there is negative content about you, paying to de-index certain search results may be possible. After Bling Empire cast member Richard Chang’s1 company was identified in a legal matter picked up by the post for example, they apparently had relevant search results deindexed?
Or:
Comprehensive! Although this is good PR, from a medical malpractice standpoint it is important to focus on appropriate standards of care in keeping with avoiding “Dereliction of Duty Resulting in Direct Damages.”
Don't: Document deviations from the standard of care on social media. This provides ongoing documentation of behavior one might be trying to avoid media exposure related to:
If you are going to try to leave defensive comments in the NY Post comment section, make sure they are not effortlessly disprovable:
To wit (from a corporate Instagram 6/25/23):
And even more absurdly, from the official Bling Empire Reddit account:
Here is C-Level Health Executive Richard Chang discussing filming patients at Hudson Health:
I'm going to break the 4th wall here because it involves a real medical practice with 100 employees, 4 different separate divisions - it's much bigger than me, and the show. I thought it was really out line for one particular producer to plant his drama flag there and come up with this whole storyline.
…The Hudson Health scene was in our production and cast-wide schedule for at least a week (and sent DAILY), well in advance of the invitation scene….
I had initially pitched having an actual consenting past patient come in; one who was once suicidal and after treating him he went back to his family, got re-married, and is living a healthy life now. I knew that he would do justice to the therapies through an HONEST telling of his personal experience. In the 11th hour, that producer told me plans changed and it had to be Dorothy and Tina because they were really struggling and it made more sense for our storyline…. so I gave in, and invited them like the producer pushed me to do so, and what you see is the result….
Now, Mr. Chang is not a physician, but this is a medical practice he’s identifying and, NYS Law as it relates to the practice of medicine (definitions of misconduct):
Exercising undue influence on the patient, including the promotion of the sale of services, goods, appliances, or drugs in such manner as to exploit the patient for the financial gain of the licensee or of a third party;
And also, just now…
When sued for violations of the above legal Issues, it makes sense to avoid future violations of the law…or to keep at it in an instagram sponsored ad? Either sway? (Screen capture from, 9:14pm July 10th, 2023, well after the Post Story about a Lawsuit alleging this was done):
Using the words…patient testimonial. In case regulators had any doubt:
Under New York Education Law § 6530(27), advertising or soliciting not in the public interest includes, but is not be limited to, advertising or soliciting that:
—uses testimonials
Some days, it makes sense to follow appropriate risk management strategies. Other days, just ignore them. What could happen?
Oh…that.
Senior compliance evangelist, Dr. Muir, reporting.
Richard Chang’s Bling Empire appearance has not been without challenges:
But, it seemed that things took a bad turn when Richard had to face the accusation of "exploiting" his friends. Is he using Dorothy Wang and Tina Leung to make money? Well, that's what the two best friends think. In the recently released episodes of 'Bling Empire: New York,' Richard lashed out at Dorothy and Tina for not coming to his company Hudson Medical for IV treatment. Listening to Richard complain, Dorothy slammed the star for constantly sending them messages and asking for help to drum up business. She further slammed Richard asking, "you reprimand all your patients?"