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We all know that, if a man gets injured during a road accident, to make an insurance claim, he’ll need to present a medico-legal report. That’s where medico-legal experts step in. Using their medical expertise to perform assessments, analyse reports, and interpret report findings, they provide medical evidence to help the court in case proceedings. A medico-legal expert’s role doesn’t end here; they play a crucial part in assisting the court in moving forward to an objective and just decision. Moreover, the need for medico-legal experts isn’t limited to road accidents; it also includes personal injury claims, clinical negligence, workplace injuries, and other cases requiring independent medical opinion to support legal decisions. This necessitates having a medico-legal expert to provide a comprehensive medico-legal report, translating complex medical findings into a logical, precise and accurate report.
A doctor serving as an expert witness carries a significant responsibility, as their report forms the basis for legal proceedings. Therefore, they can’t deal with medico-legal cases in the same way as a general medical assessment. It is a long and detailed process, which ensures objectivity and accuracy in their practice. If you are planning to step in as a medico-legal expert or are starting a career as an MRO, this blog is for you. It describes a step-by-step process, from referral to case closure, explaining everything in between.
Let’s have a closer look at the workflow of medico-legal experts:
1. Receiving the Instruction
The first step in handling any medico-legal case starts after they receive a letter of instruction from the MRO, admin agency, solicitor, or insurance company. This letter contains all the case details any medico-legal expert might need about the nature of the case, the incident and the resulting injuries, as well as background information and timelines to fully understand the case and form an objective opinion about the incident.
2. Assessing Medical Records and Evidence
The experts receive a bundle of medical records, witness statements and all relevant diagnostic results. Once medico-legal experts receive documents for their cases, it is included in their role as expert witnesses to organise documents chronologically and highlight key points that can impact case outcomes. Medico-legal experts must pay great attention to detail to notice every minute finding.
3. Conducting Medical Examination
In medico-legal cases, medical records and reports provide case background, but they might not be enough to assess the extent of injuries. There’s no room for uncertainty in medico-legal cases; therefore, where documents fail to provide a clear picture of the current situation, medico-legal experts perform direct medical examinations. This allows experts to observe physical and psychological signs in more depth, validate reported symptoms and clarify symptom progression.
4. Drafting the Medico-Legal Report
Once a medico-legal expert has all the required information on the physical and psychological impacts of the incident, along with all the relevant medical evidence, the next step in the workflow is creating a medico-legal report. This is not the same as a standard medical assessment report; it must comply with guidelines set by relevant regulatory bodies, such as MedCo in the UK or the AMA (American Medical Association) in the U.S. The medico-legal experts need to ensure that:
The report is based on facts and objective opinion
The report is structured in a logical sequence
The formatting adheres to the guidelines
The language is clear, and there is use of medical jargon
Tip: If you are a medico-legal expert, you need a Report Writer Software for all your needs. So, no more hours of report writing when you have a built-in template, compliance support and user-friendly navigation, which allows you to create a compliant and comprehensive report within minutes. Sounds unbelievable, right? Contact us to explore more features.
5. Revisions
The job of medico-legal experts doesn’t end with the submission of a report. Sometimes, solicitors might request revisions or minor changes. Accommodating new evidence or minor updates can be a matter of minutes if you have the Report Writer Software. On the other hand, when you are relying on an outdated or paper-based system, these little changes can be pretty time-consuming and daunting.
How Can Medico-Legal Experts Optimise Their Workflow?
Working as a medico-legal expert, handling numerous cases of different natures while maintaining impartiality and precision, meeting guidelines and staying compliant is quite a complicated path. Fortunately, technology offers a solution for this as well. At Medqon, using top-notch technology, we have created a Medico-Legal Case Management System that is programmed to handle all your medico-legal workflows.
Whether you struggle with managing paper-based documents, keeping all case files organised, managing schedules, or meeting deadlines, you can get rid of all these tasks by automating workflow with our case management system. It has tools for everything, so you don’t have to struggle to achieve accuracy and precision when doing everything manually. Moreover, our case management system also comes with integration abilities, which allow it to perfectly work with your existing systems as well as our Report Writer Software.
So, get our Medico-Legal Case Management System for MROs or Medico-Legal Case Management System for Medico-Legal Experts today, and optimise your workflow with unparalleled technology, user-friendly tools and intuitive functions.
Contact us to book a demo!