What is the Continuing Treatment Rule?
In medical practice, when a physician
retires or moves and sells his or her practice to a succeeding health care
provider, patients records are often sold as part of the transaction. However,
physicians should be warned that many states have medical record retention acts,
and these acts usually do not provide an exception for record-keeping
requirements even in such a transfer.
- When the patient treatment
continues for a period of time, during which it is difficult to ascertain
when the negligence occurred. Some jurisdictions have adopted a
"continuing treatment" rule to determine the time of injury for
purposes of the statute of limitations.
- The continuing treatment rule
provides another exception to the statute of limitations by extending the
time allowed for the filing of a complaint.
- The malpractice action would only
accrue, thus activating the statute of limitations, when treatment of the
medical condition ceases.
(Ref: American College Of Legal
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