Funny you should mention that.
I was just talking to a friend last night about exactly this situation.
He was consulted on a patient with abdominal pain; the patient was admitted to the Hospitalist Service and underwent surgery. Apparently on chest x-ray a lung nodule was seen. Patient decides to sue because he was discharged without having the lung nodule mentioned to him. The surgeon was sued as the patient claimed he was the attending physician and it was his responsibility to notify the patient of the results of the CXR (ordered by the hospitalist) and to do the work-up. Hospitalist claimed he was not responsible because the patient was admitted to the surgeon post-op.
Fortunately, the record from the ED and the medical file showed that the patient was indeed admitted to the Hospitalist and that the order from the resident post-op to "transfer to ICU" was not a transfer of attending. The surgeon (a friend of mine) was dropped from the suit.
Other physicians will leave the ship like drowning rats and point fingers in the case of a lawsuit and do anything to protect themselves. Lesson for the residents: when writing orders on patients who may have other consultants involved - make sure what your attending intends (stay on other service, or admit to surgery) and make sure all tests, even those you didn't order have some follow-up plan. This is why surgeons (even male ones
) are micromanagers. Do not discharge the patient if you are not the admitting service as it implies responsibility for all other problems which may not be surgical. You might get dropped from the case but it may still incur substantial emotional and financial costs.