Malpractice, Audits, and Where to Put It All | Episode 195
Nobody told you what to do when the letter arrived. Not in med school. Not in residency. And now you’re trying to hold it together through a malpractice case, a licensing board investigation, or a billing audit that feels like it came out of nowhere.
Dr. Erin Pemberton has spent 20 years defending doctors and healthcare providers in exactly those moments. Now she’s also a certified coach, and she works with providers who are in the middle of the hard stuff: not after, not in recovery, but right now, while it’s happening. In this episode, she and Dr. Sarah talk about what that kind of support actually looks like, and why it matters.
Dr. Erin Pemberton is a partner at Baylor, Evnen, Wolf & Danele law firm in Lincoln, Nebraska and the founder of Pemberton Professional Coaching. She is a certified coach credentialed through the International Coaching Federation and trained at the Physician Coaching Institute. She works with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers navigating licensure, discipline, malpractice, and audits. Find her at pembertonprocoaching.com.
Timestamped Highlights
[00:00] Dr. Erin Pemberton’s path from OR tech to nurse to nursing administrator to law school to coaching
[07:00] What 20 years of malpractice defense taught her about what doctors actually go through
[13:00] Why coaching is a safe space legally: no notes, no evidence, no diagnosing
[19:00] The risk behaviors that show up when doctors are under sustained pressure
[24:00] Billing audits, Medicaid letters, and the legal layer of medicine no one prepared you for
[28:00] What coaching looks like when someone is facing discipline, not just career transition
[31:00] How to find Dr. Pemberton and what working with her looks like
Three Key Takeaways
1. Coaching is legally distinct from therapy, and that distinction matters when you’re in trouble.
Dr. Pemberton is clear: coaching doesn’t generate notes, doesn’t create evidence, and doesn’t involve diagnosing. For a doctor in the middle of a malpractice case or licensing investigation, that makes it a genuinely safe place to process what’s happening. You can talk about how you’re feeling without creating anything that could be used against you later.
2. The emotional toll of a malpractice case or audit doesn’t wait for the case to resolve.
These cases can take years. Licensing board investigations move slowly. And the pressure doesn’t pause while your life keeps going. Dr. Pemberton talks about the risk behaviors that show up when doctors are carrying that weight with nowhere to put it, and why having a place to let the relief valve open can change how someone shows up in every other part of their life.
3. You’re not the first. You’re not the worst. And there are people who specialize in the hard part.
Most coaching focuses on career transitions or growth. Dr. Pemberton deliberately works with people who are in crisis right now, not on the other side of it. Knowing that someone has walked alongside dozens of doctors through this, and has seen them come out, is its own kind of grounding.
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