Master Series in Clinical Practice

Jointly sponsored by The Continuing Education Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Major Teaching Hospital of Harvard Medical School; Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; and William James College.

The Master Series affords the chance to spend a complete day with leaders in our field to consider the unique perspective each speaker brings to the challenging dilemmas in both theory and practice. We hope that you will consider joining us for the entire series at a reduced tuition or choose the programs most relevant to your own practice.

Thomas G. Gutheil, MD, instructor

The program will cover common and significant areas of malpractice prevention through treatment and documentation strategies, as well as actual practice and clinically based approaches. The workshop will specifically address the following areas. 1) Confidentiality concerns, including HIPAA, Tarasoff cases, persons who are and are not entitled to information and how to deal with family and police; 2) Suicide prevention and litigation after a successful suicide, including unexpected forms of suicide and their interpretation, Clinician behaviors increasing risk of suicide, as well as interaction with families afterward; 3) Violence assessment and prevention, going beyond risk factors to environmental consideration and assessment room design; 4) Problems with boundaries and limit-setting in their various manifestations and how to manage patient pressure to breach boundaries as well as how to manage early boundary breaches; 5) Liability issues in psychopharmacology, including the ethics of psychopharmacology; 6) Issues in termination vs. abandonment; and 7) Issues raised by participants.

*Risk Management Credits: The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine requires Massachusetts physicians to include 10 hours of “risk management study” as part of their 100 hours continuing medical education, with a minimum of 4 hours in AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Risk Management in Clinical Practice ​meets the criteria for 6.0 credit hours. Risk management credit(s) were determined based on criteria outlined by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. Please check with your individual state licensing board requirements before claiming risk management credit(s). Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 

Learning objectives:

1) Discuss the major liability pitfalls and “hot button” issues in clinical work

2) Examine practical approaches to documentation that both improve clinical care and decrease liability risk in the event of a bad outcome.

3) Describe risk-averse approaches to major liability forms, including suicide, violence, boundary issues, confidentiality, termination and prescribing issues.

4) Use of the clinician patient alliance as a risk management factor

5) Explain the practical use of informed consent as a clinical, ethical and risk-management force

Program Code: MS86

6 CE/CME Credits

Location: William James College, Newton

Thomas G. Gutheil, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry and co-founder of the Program in Psychiatry and Law, Beth Israel Deaconess Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; he is the first Professor of Psychiatry in the history of Harvard Medical School to be board certified in both clinical and forensic psychiatry. An internationally known forensic psychiatrist and author of over 300 publications in national and international clinical and forensic literature, Dr. Gutheil has served as a consulting or expert witness in more than forty states. Recipient of every major award in the forensic field and multiple teaching and writing awards, he is also the recipient of the 2000 A. Clifford Barger Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gutheil lives and works in the Boston area.