title: Future legal issues in emergency medicine.
abstract: This article analyzes past legal trends in emergency medicine with an effort to project those trends and current developments into future legal issues that will confront emergency physicians and emergency departments. Special emphasis is placed on insurance trends and professional liability insurance developments along with medical malpractice claims past, present, and future. Also discussed in this article is the health care industry environment and ways that it might affect future legal challenges for emergency medicine.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, Brownwood Regional Medical Center, TX.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Mayer
mesh_terms: D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007351:Insurance, Liability / Q000639:trends; D016365:Liability, Legal; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States