RE: Clinical Emergency Clause

["Mcsean, Tony (ELS)" <T.Mcsean@elsevier.com>]

I'm not aware of any such a thing happening, but then the UK a little less
litigious than the US.  As director of the BMA Library, I took a lot of
care and advice in drawing up a set of terms and conditions of service and
of getting them approved by committee.  The terms committed library staff
to no more than using their best efforts to use the best and most current
resources.

It was (and still is under my successor) an absolute no-no for staff to do
anything which might be interpreted as giving medical advice or
interpreting a written source.  The possible consequences of that, legal
and medical, are obvious and too horrible to contemplate (not least as
library drector being flung by senior management from a high window and
thinking to onesself "fair enough" on the way down).

In fact, emergency, screamingly urgent requests for information are less
frequent in clinical libraries than you might imagine.  The BMA offers a
"drop everything" level of response where the information is required
urgently, but this is rarely taken up even though as a mostly secondary
referral service you might expect timescales to be shorter than normal.

Most medical libraries of any size have an equivalent of the librarian
reading the textbook/paper down the phone to a scrubbed-up surgeon who is
listening with one finger on the artery (or whatever).  But these stories
tend to have the air of if not legendary or apocryphal then at least the
not-lost-anything-by-constant-retelling.

On the other hand, when faced with someone who is genuinely in imminent
danger of dying and you can do something to help, it's probably best not
to adopt too rigidly legalistic a frame of mind.  We Stop You Dying (terms
and conditions apply) isn't much of an ethical code.

Tony

Tony McSe�n
Director of Library Relations
Elsevier
+44 7795 960516
+44 1865 843630

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Bolick, Bob
Sent: 15 March 2005 02:19
To: Joseph Esposito; liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Clinical Emergency Clause

Hmm, and I wonder if any health professional has ever been slapped with a
malpractice suit for a bad outcome due to having to wait for docdel to
deliver "clinical emergency" content?  (Just keep the pressure on that;
the Fedex man is on his way.)

Somewhat apropos, I happen to overhear at my public library a librarian
refusing to provide assistance to a patron in interpreting a medical
reference.  She explained that it was library and municipal policy to avoid
suits for bad advice.  So in the frivolous case above, would the library
have an exposure if it sent "almost the right" article?

Robert Bolick
Vice President
Global Business Planning
McGraw-Hill Education
2 Penn Plaza, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10121
(O) 212.904.5934    (M) 646.431.8121
IM: bobb@nexus.eppg.com
IM: b6b2y@aol.com
Internet ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.1570/b01b01b