While defense medical exams are routine for attorneys, they are typically new to a plaintiff. That may not seem like a big deal, but without the proper education for the client, a defense medical exam could become detrimental to the client’s case. How can this be avoided? By having a professional, legal nurse consultant accompany your client to their DME. Here are four ways a Nutris legal nurse consultant can be beneficial to your client’s case.
Advocacy
The financial and time cost of defense medical exams makes having to replicate an exam prohibitive. Consistent interjection by either party during the exam often leads to the assessment either ending early or incompletely. Nutris’s LNCs are trained to professionally interject during the exam in a manner that promotes decorum. The result is a successful DME that protects the client’s case.
Relationships
With over ten years as the leader in the legal industry, our staff and nurses have developed relationships with many doctors and their office staff as well. While having a rapport with the doctor performing the defense medical exam isn’t necessary, it certainly does not hurt either. Having prior knowledge of the nuances of an office system and an accord with the doctors can go a long way to making the exam process smooth and effective.
Client Preparation
Preparing a client before a defense medical exam is likely the most important part of the process. Client preparation begins before the actual exam with simple, yet vital, arrangements for transportation and interpretation. If the client doesn’t show up or doesn’t understand the questions being asked of them, then the DME is a bust.
Further, client preparation allows our LNC to discuss the process of the exam. This is an important step as most clients do not understand that the doctor is not their personal physician and that the doctor is not there to help the client. That lack of knowledge can lead to inappropriate elaboration or focusing on the wrong aspect of the incident, causing the exam to have an adverse effect on the case.
Recording and Summarization
Our services include an audio recording of each exam for the attorney to review. But our nurses are also skilled at providing a professional summary of the exam that utilizes the nurse’s medical knowledge. The benefit of having not only the audio of the exam but a medical professional’s summary of the exam is invaluable.
Nutris Can Help Your Practice
Nutris Consulting’s legal nurse consultants provide support services for our clients by creating not only peace of mind during defense medical exams, but also by saving our clients’ valuable time. When our legal nurse consultants are scheduled to attend a client’s DME, they begin the important process of protecting the patient’s case through advocacy—all while the attorney is able to attend to other matters, creating ultimate efficiency for each case. Our nurses take great care to educate clients on the DME process to ensure a smooth exam. Ready to get scheduled? Visit our contact page or call us at (661) 362-8333 seven days a week.
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