Attorneys
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As healthcare attorneys practicing medical malpractice, it is not always possible to decipher what is standard of care. Clinical context and information is often missing. The legal database is not complete; therefore, it is critical to engage conversations with physicians and patients to fill this void.
Adding a attorney to health care team…
What can a doctor do if a patient is being evicted or has her utilities shut off, lives in a house with mold that is exacerbating her child’s asthma, or is financially dependent on an abusive partner? These questions are neither rhetorical nor uncommon; a survey by Robert Wood found that 4 in 5 doctors view social needs as critical to patient health but are not confident in their ability to address those needs.
What is clear is that doctors cannot be expected to address these complex patient needs alone. To address the complexity of medical care and patient health, many medical schools and residency programs are increasingly incorporating interprofessional education (IPE) into their curriculum. IPE curriculum tends to focus on the interface between doctors and other health professionals–nurses, physician assistants, and pharmacists. But to effectively address the social determinants of health, health professionals need to know how to tap the expertise of social workers, lawyers, and community organizers concerning how to improve the social conditions that make their patients sick in the first place.