Managing the clinical and medicolegal risks of obesity

Abstract

Obesity is a major public health problem and could soon become a major medicolegal issue as well if appropriate risk management is not undertaken. Apart from the clinical complications of obesity, problems could arise from the use of inappropriate equipment. Insufficiently strong equipment used to move/transport/treat an obese patient could break or fail. Staff who manually handle obese patients without proper equipment and training could suffer back injuries. These types of claims should be preventable with sufficient investment in equipment and training. Unless the problem is addressed now, there could be an increase in claims. These will include clinical negligence claims brought on patients' behalf for injuries due to handling difficulties, equipment failure, problems with calculation of drug doses and failure of diagnosis. There will also be personal injury claims associated with manual handling of obese patients brought by the medical staff responsible for their care.