Legal Summary

decision is binding and enforceable in a court of law. The arbitrator’s decision is confidential, discovery is limited, and the process is faster and less expensive than traditional litigation. The third most frequently used form of ADR is Early Neutral Evaluation (“ENE”). At an ENE, the parties also select the evaluator who will provide an unbiased assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s position. This process helps each party evaluate their chances of success at trial which usually leads to a settlement agreement. Many times, parties chose to engage in early neutral evaluation and end up engaging in mediation or vice-versa.

Litigation disrupts a health care provider’s work and everyday life. It adds an additional stress to an already stressful career. Engaging in pre-litigation mediation avoids the risk of high jury awards, maintains the complaint confidential, preserves the health care provider’s hard-earned reputation, substantially reduces litigation expenses and minimizes the disruption caused by litigation.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for information only and should not be considered legal advice. To obtain legal advice on this matter, please contact an attorney experienced in this area of law.

Lourdes Sanchez Ridge is a mediator and practices law at Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti LLP. She is licensed in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and Florida. Her bio can be found at https://www.pietragallo.com/lawyers.

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Allegheny County Medical Society In The Press

adjacent lumbar vertebra, explaining her pain. My resident, from Georgia, upon seeing the findings said, in his deep southern drawl, “Fellahs, there’s a lesson here. Crocks daah (die), too.” Unfortunately for the patient, CT scanning and ultrasound exams had not been developed. The important lesson is that for most patients with a diagnosis of psychosomatic illness, the symptoms are real, and in fact a small number of these patients indeed have real abnormalities accounting for their symptoms.

Sigmund Freud’s view of humor was that it was a conscious expression of thoughts that society usually suppressed or was forbidden.2 As long as the humor, in this case name- calling, is meant in a benign fashion, it is considered harmless.

However, in today’s politically divisive atmosphere, it is best to use humor only when you truly know your audience. As a good example, I remember the not so “good old days,” when it was expected that a speaker at a conference or a refresher course would tell jokes. Many of the “old timers” were very colorful characters. Today, fortunately, speakers are business-like and jokes are tacitly forbidden, since they are bound to offend someone. Finally, we should always remember that no matter how unpleasant some of our patients are to us, they are still our fellow human beings.

Dr. Daffner, associate editor of the ACMS Bulletin, is a retired radiologist who practiced at Allegheny General

He is emeritus clinical professor of Radiology at Temple University School of Medicine and is the author of nine

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