Failure to prevent suicide is the single most common cause of action in psychiatric malpractice suits, and failure to protect identifiable others is another major source of potential liability exposure. Many practitioners in non-psychiatric settings have never been trained to recognize risk factors indicating that a patient represents a danger to himself or others, nor are they necessarily aware of duty to third party law and how it applies to patients who represent a danger to others. However, there is considerable co-morbidity between psychiatric and somatic afflictions, and some patients will experience psychiatric difficulties even if that is not the reason they seek medical assistance. Mental illness is not wholly predictive of violence, but it may suggest a susceptibility to other stressors in which violence may occur. Non-psychiatric practitioners need to have a good working knowledge of the proper evaluation and management of mental health problems that may unexpectedly arise, especially when the possibility of harm to self or others exists.
In this activity, we present evidence-based medical and legal literature and cases related to dangerousness to self and others. In addition, we discuss the interview and documentation pertaining to dangerousness as well as civil commitment and duty to third party law. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: integrate awareness of the categories that indicate a patient is at risk for self-harm into clinical practice in order to reduce the risk of patient injury; plan an approach to the management of a patient that may be a danger to himself/herself or others that reduces the risk of patient injury or injury to others; and apply knowledge of duty to third party law to clinical practice in order to manage cases that involve the potential for danger to third parties outside the physician-patient relationship.
Credit & MOC Details
Credit information is provided by the course provider. We recommend confirming credit eligibility with the provider or your licensing board before starting the activity.
Credit types
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FDA REMS
Qualifies for MIPS
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Specialties served/covered
- Addiction Medicine
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Clinical Informatics
- Clinician Wellness & Burnout
- Communication & Shared Decision-Making
- Critical Care Medicine
- Diagnostic Radiology
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Medicine
- General & Adult Psychiatry
- General Internal Medicine
- General Operative Anesthesia
- General Pediatrics
- General Surgery
- Geriatric Medicine
- Health Equity & Inclusion
- Hospital Medicine
- Infectious Disease
- Maternal-Fetal Medicine
- Medical Genetics & Genomics
- Medical Leadership & Administration
- Neurology
- Neurosurgery
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Trauma
- Patient Safety & Quality Improvement
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Pediatric Urology
- Practice Management & Ethics
- Surgical Critical Care
- Trauma Surgery
- Urology
- Vascular Neurology
- Vascular Surgery
- Anesthesiology
- Cardio-Vascular
- Cross-Specialty
- Emergency & Critical Care
- Infectious Disease
- Internal Medicine
- Medical Subspecialties
- Neurology
- Ob/Gyn
- Orthopedics
- Pediatrics
- Primary care
- Psychiatry
- Radiology
- Surgery
- Urology
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- Case-based learning
- Credit · Up to 2 credits
- MOC · Up to 2 points
- Fee · varies
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ReleasedSep 22, 2025
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Last day to claim creditSep 22, 2028 2 years left
