Healthcare Risk Management – March 1, 2024
March 1, 2024
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AI Creates Liability Risks for Healthcare Organizations
Artificial intelligence is entering a variety of industries including healthcare, where it offers the opportunity to improve diagnoses and patient care in many ways. The potential benefits come with significant risks that must be anticipated and mitigated.
Safety Strategies to Minimize AI Risks in Healthcare
Patient safety and risk management strategies for AI in healthcare are crucial for avoiding liability and preventing medical errors.
Watch for ‘Hallucinations’ When Using AI for Healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) developers caution that there are limitations to the technology. Healthcare organizations must consider them when seeking the benefits AI offers. AI can be helpful, but it can introduce errors to the healthcare process.
Daily Safety Call Improves Care at Hospital
A Maryland hospital found that a highly structured daily safety conference call with key clinicians and administrators can significantly improve patient safety. Attendees report safety issues, receive updates, and can act quickly on concerns.
Speedy Response to Concern During Daily Safety Call
The daily safety call at Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD, often identifies issues that need attention. Some problems take a while to address, but others can be resolved quickly.
Uptick in Surgical Fires Prompts Concern, Requires Action
A recent report on operating room fire safety warns that the risk of flash fires is a growing concern as hospitals see more use of high-tech and high-temperature devices in oxygen-rich settings.
Mixed Defense Rulings Related to Patient’s Death Yield Lessons Regarding Experts
Factually, there was no dispute about the patient’s cause of death — it resulted from an infection. Legally, the defendant physician’s initial challenge to the plaintiff’s case was not to directly attack that factual premise itself, but to instead challenge the plaintiff’s experts.
Defense Decision Reinstated for Patient’s Failure to Provide Expert Testimony
An important lesson from this case focuses on a critical aspect of medical malpractice cases: causation. Generally, the legal standard is that the care provider’s conduct must have been a substantial factor in causing harm such that a reasonable person would consider the conduct to have contributed to the harm.
First HIPAA Settlement for Ransomware, Fine for Phishing
The Office for Civil Rights achieved two firsts recently: a settlement agreement related to a ransomware attack on a business associate and the first fine issued for a phishing attack. Both cases hold lessons for other covered entities.
HHS Issues HIPAA Best Practices for Telehealth
The Department of Health and Human Services published a resource guide to assist telehealth providers in explaining the privacy and security risks to patients, but the guidance makes clear HIPAA does not require this education. However, the goal is for the resource guide to help providers who would like to discuss potential risks with the patient.
Ransom Demands Decrease and More Companies Refuse to Pay
The number of ransomware victims opting to pay the ransom has fallen to a record low. At the beginning of 2019, 85% of ransomware victims paid a ransom. However, that figure fell to 46% in the middle of 2021 and 29% in the last quarter of 2023.
When a Privacy Breach Is Not a Breach
Language is important when talking about noncompliance with HIPAA. Not every instance of noncompliance is a breach.