Documentation Of Injuries In The Emergency Room

Documentation of injuries presenting to medical practitioners in the community or in hospital is generally poor
In many cases, the initial examination and assessment may have been undertaken for purely therapeutic purposes, and the forensic significance of the injuries may not become apparent until several weeks or months later
It is extremely important to describe what is seen in the emergency department patient accurately because this department is where the wound is first seen. Emergency department physicians are often guilty of illegal writing and brief, scant description of the wounds they treat. As a result, when these accounts appear in court, the true appearance of these wounds is lost, and perpetrators can be released and physicians