Nothing's worse than having the first appointment of your day interrupted by an unpleasant surprise. Instead of the child who is running a fever or the father who's concerned about his blood pressure, you are faced with a sheriff serving a summons. Instead of helping a patient learn what she can do to feel better, you are scrambling for ways to make yourself feel better. Not good.

Jeffrey Segal, MD

Think of it this way: The better care you take of yourself legally means the greater your chances of swearing off lawyers forever—the same way that taking care of your body may well mean avoiding costly and intensive medical interventions.

Use your cell phone to return pages from your answering service.

People inclined to sue often allege that the doctor did not call back in a timely fashion or did not call at all. If you call from a land line, there is no record of your call being made. Call from a cell phone and a record is created. Won't patients abuse the privilege and call you directly on your cell? I've found this is generally not the case.

Now that you've called the patient back, document what was said.

It's too easy to give advice and ignore the paper trail. If you use an electronic health record, login and record. If you have access to a call-in transcription service, use it. If not, create a separate voice mailbox on your office phone to be used for transcription of after-hours messages.

Guarantee that patients will receive lab and radiology results in a specified time period or their office visit is free.

That's right. If you tell all patients they will hear from you regarding their results, they will never assume that no news is good news. This is a frequent source of litigation, particularly when tests reveal something as serious as cancer. The doctor often assumes the staff sent information to the patient. The patient assumes that not hearing from the doctor is good news. Tie your office manager's bonus to how frequently such refunds are tendered, and you will find the information gets transferred with nearly 100 percent accuracy.

Document what you did not do.

Although it sounds counterintuitive, there are times it makes eminent sense to keep a record of what was not done. Sometimes, there is extensive literature explaining the merits of following a particular algorithm for treating a given condition, but for a variety of reasons, you might choose to forgo such treatments. The default assumption by a plaintiff's attorney will be that "If it was not documented, you were unaware of such standards for treatment and you didn't even think about it." But if you document your reasoning for avoiding such an established treatment—because in your judgment, in this particular case, the risks outweighed the benefits—you will sidestep any allegation that you breached the standard of care. It takes two minutes to document. If you address it upfront, it's an explanation. If you address it after the fact, it's an excuse.