MEDITECH Physician Documentation Templates: Implementation Details
April 26, 2017
With HITECH in full swing and hospitals and health systems across the nation implementing electronic medical record systems, some for the first time, many are finding that the MEDITECH solution, while fantastic for billing, coding and reporting, perhaps leaves a little to be desired where the end-users in the ED are concerned. Many ED providers…Read More
Duty to Warn Third Parties
April 24, 2017
Most physicians are aware that there is a duty to provide reasonable care in the patient-physician relationship. Typically, malpractice liability does not extend to anyone outside of that relationship. However, there are certain extraordinary circumstances in which a physician may have an obligation to a third party, one that is outside the patient-physician relationship. Source:…Read More
[Infographic] The State of Healthcare Cyber Liability
April 21, 2017
The threat of a cyber attack seems only to be increasing in healthcare. Recent reports show security issues include losses by large and small providers. Based on the reports in the media, it would appear that no one is immune to this threat. Before we look for ways to minimize cyber risk, it’s important to…Read More
Overcrowding in the Emergency Department
April 17, 2017
Too many patients in too little space subjected to inefficient processes. This is the essence of overcrowding in the Emergency Department. In the 40 years since 1975, the number of hospitals has declined from over 7,000 to about 5,700. Hospital bed capacity fell during the same period from 1.5 million to fewer than a million….Read More
Mapping Clinical Risks to Frequent Obstetrics Claims
April 12, 2017
Since we recently laid out an exercise mapping clinical risks to frequent diagnosis-related claims in Emergency Medicine, we’re circling back to recommend a risk mitigation exercise for another area of high risk medicine, Obstetrics. A recent The Doctors Company analysis identified the most frequent obstetric claims as: 22% Delay in Treatment of Fetal Distress 20% Improper…Read More
Making the Biggest Impact on Patient Safety: Where to Focus?
April 10, 2017
Anything and everything that improves patient safety is important. The sheer weight of that sentence can be overwhelming to healthcare professionals. Consider one conclusion from the Institute of Medicine (IOC) report “Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare” that states, “Advancing patient safety requires an overarching shift from reactive, piecemeal interventions to a total systems approach to safety…Read More
How to Recognize Child Abuse
April 3, 2017
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and I thought it would be worthwhile to review the scope of the problem we are trying to prevent. Child physical abuse exists in all corners of the country and affects children of all ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic groups. Consider the following facts: More than 2 million reports…Read More
Mapping Clinical Risks to Frequent Diagnosis-Related Claims
March 31, 2017
Many organizations that study medical liability trends often point to breakdowns in communication, cognitive errors, lapse in clinical judgement, etc. as the main contributing factors that cause diagnosis-related claims. Because 60% of Emergency Medicine claims are diagnosis-related, every health care organization should have a strategy for mapping and organizing the most common clinical risk areas…Read More
10 Principles of Geriatric Care in Acute Settings
March 27, 2017
Whether we like it or not, the future of medicine is geriatrics. As the demographics in the United States change in the next 50 years, it is predicted that practitioners will find themselves providing care to a much larger group of elderly patients. For example, the 2014 census data showed that 14.5% of the U.S….Read More
[INFOGRAPHIC] Understanding Diagnostic Error
March 22, 2017
Diagnostic error poses a significant threat to patient safety. According to a 2007-2013 closed claims analysis from The Doctors Company, missed or delayed diagnoses are responsible for 57% of malpractice claims in emergency medicine. Before we can design patient safety initiatives to address diagnostic error in our organizations, we must first understand the breadth of…Read More
