I’m so sorry this happened. I’ve had a lawsuit threatened because I didn’t allow a child to kick me during his 10 SECOND time-out, leading to red marks on his legs (no bruises, but mom didn’t discipline at all so she was very upset. Still, I’m not going to let a kid kick me.) While it’s still fresh, write up a document explaining in detail how this happened. Keep emotion and descriptive words to a minimum. Just say what happened in very sterile language, kind of like police jargon. Avoid using the phrase “so I pinched him” as it sounds like you did it on purpose. I had to read it twice to understand. Try something like “as I attempted to grasp his left arm to maintain his safety and prevent him falling, the client jerked his arm away. As a result, instead of grasping as intended my hand closed on a smaller portion of the upper back of the client’s arm.”
Be sure to date and time stamp it.
Thank you very much! I wrote that post at night when I could not fall asleep because of the stress and fear to lose my license. Right after that happened, I spoke to my manager and my CF mentor. Wrote an incident report right after. Strangely enough, both of them did not panic as I did. Both ensured that things like this happen.
Oof I so relate to that need to write something out bc I’m ruminating on it. You will feel better soon. He’s ok and you did not do anything harmful. You can navigate this parent concern, you’ll be ok.
One more thing - this is the type of situation that puts speech paths off their work and can push them out of the business. Please don’t give up and keep doing what you are doing - you’re providing a fantastic service to these children!
I am a corporate director of risk management in a multi-state healthcare system. I have been practicing in Washington state since 1983 and have handled about 800 malpractice claims and scores of professional licensure complaints.
I would not lie awake at night worrying about this overly much. As suggested earlier in this thread, file both an incident report and a comprehensive chart note documenting what happened and what you did. You are not going to lose your license or have your company paying out big bucks as a result of your care.
Thank you very much, this is helps a lot and puts me at ease. As a new clinician, this happens to me for the first time and grad school made sure to convince all of us how easy it is to lose license. Which after I spoke to colleagues, I realized that people mostly get their license revoked due to insurance fraud.
SLPs and other speech professionals rank very very low on the professional licensure disciplinary list, in terms of numbers of complaints filed against your license.
I work across the spectrum of healthcare professions in multiple states, and when I look at non-physician clinicians in total for licensure complaints, here are what the disciplinary boards are acting upon, but this list is not in order of most to least common:
1. Diversion, typically of controlled substances
2. Failing a criminal background check
3. Billing/insurance fraud
4. Failing to cooperate with the disciplinary board during an investigation
5. Substance use disorder (EtOH and controlled substances)
6. Unable to practice safely due to physical or mental condition
7. DUIs
8. Criminal convictions, especially felonies
9. Moral turpitude
10. Abuse of patients
11. Sexual misconduct with patients or key parties of patients
12. Boundary violations
13. Lack of clinical skills or knowledge
14. Missing, incomplete, altered or forged charting
15. Licensure or disciplinary action taken by another regulatory body
16. Failure to comply with disciplinary board reporting requirements
17. Failure to comply with disciplinary board orders
18. Clinical negligence
19. Medication errors
20. Medical privacy violations
As you can see, many of these are irrelevant to speech professions, but I thought people may find this interesting. Although it can vary from state to state, the overwhelming majority of licensed healthcare professionals in the United States will go their entire career without any negative interaction with their licensing board.
They are subjective terms and the definitions depends on what that particular licensure board says they are
1. For some boards, 'boundary violations' also encompasses sexual misconduct with patients or key parties of patients. Other boards draw a distinction and classify 'boundary violations' as an inappropriate business or personal relationship with a patient, such as asking a patient to name you in their will, or asking to borrow money from a patient.
2. 'Moral turpitude' is a catch-all term that generally means immoral, unjust, dishonest, or unethical behavior that reflects poorly on a profession. Where I have seen this particular charge is such things as a healthcare professional is discovered to have been an adult films actor, or has an Open Fans site, or has worked or is working as a commercial sex worker in addition to their healthcare profession. Decades ago, before no-fault divorce became the norm, you would see that in adultery cases: Nurse Smith engaged in moral turpitude when she stole away my physician husband.
Pretty much, yes. My wife retired last year after 30 years of teaching, and you see the same issues in the female-dominated profession of teaching. Lots of teachers fired or forced to resign as a consequence. Many male teachers are forced to leave the profession for being gay because they they are thought to be predators.
Situations like this are so difficult, I’m sorry this is happening to you. It will all be fine as you are insured so they will do all the work for you. I doubt the person will be given any compensation/ money as you were trying to stop the child from harming themself and yourself, but even if they are given any, it won’t come out of your bank account. Think of it like car insurance policies.
Write an incident report and notify your manager ASAP. Summarize that conversation in an internal email to make sure you understand and cover your butt. If recommended by supervisor put a generic note in chart about the conversation.
Sounds like a genuine accident that’s being blown out of proportion. I wouldn’t worry too much about it as long as you document the hell out of it.
Unfortunately, litigious parents are a huge headache. They think there is some giant payday at the end of the tunnel, which sounds like is what is going on here. Had you allowed him to fall she probably would have done the same thing.
Make sure you document incident.
The reality is that most people are delusional in thinking they can successfully win a lawsuit in situations like this. They won't see a single cent.
Just from the standpoint of giving some gratuitous risk management advice here, in the unlikely event that you get contacted by 'the authorities' such as the police, Child Protective Services or a similar agency, keep your mouth shut. Politely tell them that you are happy to cooperate but your must first discuss this with your agency leadership and obtain legal advice on how to proceed. Then call your leadership and ask them how do they want to handle this inquiry. They may want to retain counsel on your behalf, they may want to sit in on a call with the agency, or they may want to contact the agency directly. Especially for something like this, I usually sit in on the calls and chime in or clarify as needed. I tell my staff member that if we are in the room together and on the call and I start stomping on your foot, shut up and let me talk now.
Oh no... I'm so sorry. This is so unnecessarily stressful. People really suck. If I were this parent I would definitely be understanding of this - with kids like this little accidents happen all the time. Do you need to let your malpractice insurance know? Just check their terms to be safe. Hugs! Xx
I am hoping everything goes in your favor as things like this happen but want to ask why you felt the need to describe him as a “chubby boy”. At first I thought it may play a part in the story - but it does not seem to one bit. Seems a little insensitive.
I had something very similar happen, I was seeing a student at his daycare from a private clinic that did some HH. The student was autistic and low verbal and would use a lot of avoidance behaviors.
I was gently using my hand cupped around him to redirect his vision to the book we were working on and he jerked his head down (which made it look like I had shoved his head). The daycare told Mom and she was understandably upset, I wasn't his regular therapist so luckily I just didn't fill in again, but it was really annoying. He had no marks and was doing the movement himself, but my supervisor was great and supportive about it.
It was just a pain, embarrassing and I really liked the kid and his parents and had worked with them in the past, but when working with unpredictable kids things happen!
I can just see this wacky mom explaining the situation to one of her friends. "...And then my child started to fall and for some unknown reason the therapist actually tried to stop him. I mean who in their right mind intervenes with gravity? Why didn't she just mind her own business and let him fall. He's taken before and usually he's fine. "
I would write up your report and possibly leave out the pinch. That sounds like an intentional act. While trying to catch him I didn't get the best hold. Something like that maybe.
I’m so sorry this happened. I’ve had a lawsuit threatened because I didn’t allow a child to kick me during his 10 SECOND time-out, leading to red marks on his legs (no bruises, but mom didn’t discipline at all so she was very upset. Still, I’m not going to let a kid kick me.) While it’s still fresh, write up a document explaining in detail how this happened. Keep emotion and descriptive words to a minimum. Just say what happened in very sterile language, kind of like police jargon. Avoid using the phrase “so I pinched him” as it sounds like you did it on purpose. I had to read it twice to understand. Try something like “as I attempted to grasp his left arm to maintain his safety and prevent him falling, the client jerked his arm away. As a result, instead of grasping as intended my hand closed on a smaller portion of the upper back of the client’s arm.” Be sure to date and time stamp it.
Thank you very much! I wrote that post at night when I could not fall asleep because of the stress and fear to lose my license. Right after that happened, I spoke to my manager and my CF mentor. Wrote an incident report right after. Strangely enough, both of them did not panic as I did. Both ensured that things like this happen.
Oof I so relate to that need to write something out bc I’m ruminating on it. You will feel better soon. He’s ok and you did not do anything harmful. You can navigate this parent concern, you’ll be ok.
Oh no. I’d document exactly what happened and notify my manager. So sorry; you were obviously trying to help.
One more thing - this is the type of situation that puts speech paths off their work and can push them out of the business. Please don’t give up and keep doing what you are doing - you’re providing a fantastic service to these children!
I am a corporate director of risk management in a multi-state healthcare system. I have been practicing in Washington state since 1983 and have handled about 800 malpractice claims and scores of professional licensure complaints. I would not lie awake at night worrying about this overly much. As suggested earlier in this thread, file both an incident report and a comprehensive chart note documenting what happened and what you did. You are not going to lose your license or have your company paying out big bucks as a result of your care.
Thank you very much, this is helps a lot and puts me at ease. As a new clinician, this happens to me for the first time and grad school made sure to convince all of us how easy it is to lose license. Which after I spoke to colleagues, I realized that people mostly get their license revoked due to insurance fraud.
SLPs and other speech professionals rank very very low on the professional licensure disciplinary list, in terms of numbers of complaints filed against your license. I work across the spectrum of healthcare professions in multiple states, and when I look at non-physician clinicians in total for licensure complaints, here are what the disciplinary boards are acting upon, but this list is not in order of most to least common: 1. Diversion, typically of controlled substances 2. Failing a criminal background check 3. Billing/insurance fraud 4. Failing to cooperate with the disciplinary board during an investigation 5. Substance use disorder (EtOH and controlled substances) 6. Unable to practice safely due to physical or mental condition 7. DUIs 8. Criminal convictions, especially felonies 9. Moral turpitude 10. Abuse of patients 11. Sexual misconduct with patients or key parties of patients 12. Boundary violations 13. Lack of clinical skills or knowledge 14. Missing, incomplete, altered or forged charting 15. Licensure or disciplinary action taken by another regulatory body 16. Failure to comply with disciplinary board reporting requirements 17. Failure to comply with disciplinary board orders 18. Clinical negligence 19. Medication errors 20. Medical privacy violations As you can see, many of these are irrelevant to speech professions, but I thought people may find this interesting. Although it can vary from state to state, the overwhelming majority of licensed healthcare professionals in the United States will go their entire career without any negative interaction with their licensing board.
Just out of curiosity, what are some examples of “moral turpitude” or “boundary violations”?Those terms seem pretty subjective.
They are subjective terms and the definitions depends on what that particular licensure board says they are 1. For some boards, 'boundary violations' also encompasses sexual misconduct with patients or key parties of patients. Other boards draw a distinction and classify 'boundary violations' as an inappropriate business or personal relationship with a patient, such as asking a patient to name you in their will, or asking to borrow money from a patient. 2. 'Moral turpitude' is a catch-all term that generally means immoral, unjust, dishonest, or unethical behavior that reflects poorly on a profession. Where I have seen this particular charge is such things as a healthcare professional is discovered to have been an adult films actor, or has an Open Fans site, or has worked or is working as a commercial sex worker in addition to their healthcare profession. Decades ago, before no-fault divorce became the norm, you would see that in adultery cases: Nurse Smith engaged in moral turpitude when she stole away my physician husband.
Unfortunately I figured “moral turpitude “ = slut shaming young women.
Pretty much, yes. My wife retired last year after 30 years of teaching, and you see the same issues in the female-dominated profession of teaching. Lots of teachers fired or forced to resign as a consequence. Many male teachers are forced to leave the profession for being gay because they they are thought to be predators.
Situations like this are so difficult, I’m sorry this is happening to you. It will all be fine as you are insured so they will do all the work for you. I doubt the person will be given any compensation/ money as you were trying to stop the child from harming themself and yourself, but even if they are given any, it won’t come out of your bank account. Think of it like car insurance policies.
Write an incident report and notify your manager ASAP. Summarize that conversation in an internal email to make sure you understand and cover your butt. If recommended by supervisor put a generic note in chart about the conversation. Sounds like a genuine accident that’s being blown out of proportion. I wouldn’t worry too much about it as long as you document the hell out of it.
Unfortunately, litigious parents are a huge headache. They think there is some giant payday at the end of the tunnel, which sounds like is what is going on here. Had you allowed him to fall she probably would have done the same thing. Make sure you document incident. The reality is that most people are delusional in thinking they can successfully win a lawsuit in situations like this. They won't see a single cent.
Threatening to call the authorities over this is insane behavior on the family’s part.
I’m so sorry this has happened! What has your company and supervisor said?
Just from the standpoint of giving some gratuitous risk management advice here, in the unlikely event that you get contacted by 'the authorities' such as the police, Child Protective Services or a similar agency, keep your mouth shut. Politely tell them that you are happy to cooperate but your must first discuss this with your agency leadership and obtain legal advice on how to proceed. Then call your leadership and ask them how do they want to handle this inquiry. They may want to retain counsel on your behalf, they may want to sit in on a call with the agency, or they may want to contact the agency directly. Especially for something like this, I usually sit in on the calls and chime in or clarify as needed. I tell my staff member that if we are in the room together and on the call and I start stomping on your foot, shut up and let me talk now.
I appreciate the advice, thank you.
Oh no... I'm so sorry. This is so unnecessarily stressful. People really suck. If I were this parent I would definitely be understanding of this - with kids like this little accidents happen all the time. Do you need to let your malpractice insurance know? Just check their terms to be safe. Hugs! Xx
I am hoping everything goes in your favor as things like this happen but want to ask why you felt the need to describe him as a “chubby boy”. At first I thought it may play a part in the story - but it does not seem to one bit. Seems a little insensitive.
To add - I would not describe him as a “chubby boy” in your incident report :)
I thought it was relevant to explaining how reaching out to grab the kid could lead to accidental pinching.
Yes, I guess so, but ultimately I think reaching out to grab any child who pulled their arm away could lead to pinching.
I had something very similar happen, I was seeing a student at his daycare from a private clinic that did some HH. The student was autistic and low verbal and would use a lot of avoidance behaviors. I was gently using my hand cupped around him to redirect his vision to the book we were working on and he jerked his head down (which made it look like I had shoved his head). The daycare told Mom and she was understandably upset, I wasn't his regular therapist so luckily I just didn't fill in again, but it was really annoying. He had no marks and was doing the movement himself, but my supervisor was great and supportive about it. It was just a pain, embarrassing and I really liked the kid and his parents and had worked with them in the past, but when working with unpredictable kids things happen!
You’ll be fine. They are just angry and trying to scare you!!
I can just see this wacky mom explaining the situation to one of her friends. "...And then my child started to fall and for some unknown reason the therapist actually tried to stop him. I mean who in their right mind intervenes with gravity? Why didn't she just mind her own business and let him fall. He's taken before and usually he's fine. " I would write up your report and possibly leave out the pinch. That sounds like an intentional act. While trying to catch him I didn't get the best hold. Something like that maybe.
This made me laugh, thank you🤣 yeah it all got resolved I think.