Healthcare Risk Management – June 1, 2013
June 1, 2013
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Do you have the right insurance broker? You can boost coverage, lower costs
Insurance brokers can be a key resource for hospitals, but risk managers often end up working with a broker for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes the broker has been with the organization for years with no one questioning the relationship, for example. -
HRM Reader Survey Now Online
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Robotic surgery problems can involve hospitals
A Colorado surgeon is under investigation for 14 robotic surgeries with poor outcomes or adverse events, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating what might be an unexpectedly high rate of problems with surgical robotics. -
Stark exceptions make it safer to provide docs with EHRs
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed a rule that revises the exception, known as the Stark Exception, to the federal physician self-referral prohibition (the Stark Law) for certain arrangements involving the donation of electronic health record (EHR) items and services to physicians or other allied health providers. -
ONC yanks certification for two EHR systems
If you are using an electronic health record (EHR) provided by EHRMagic in Santa Fe Springs, CA, you have a problem. -
Diagnostic errors are your biggest medmal risk
Twenty-five years of U.S. medical malpractice claim payouts show that diagnostic errors accounted for the largest fraction of claims, the most severe patient harm, and the highest total of penalty payouts, according to recent research from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. -
TJC warns about alarm fatigue putting patients at risk
The constant beeping of alarms and an overabundance of information transmitted by medical devices such as ventilators, blood pressure monitors and ECG (electrocardiogram) machines is creating alarm fatigue that puts hospital patients at serious risk, according to a Sentinel Event Alert issued recently by The Joint Commission (TJC). -
Survey finds healthcare risk managers and executives struggle with patient safety
Maximizing patient safety is the top priority for hospital C-suite executives and risk managers in the United States, but the lack of teamwork, negative culture, and poor communication will present barriers to patient safety in the future, according to a survey commissioned by American International Group (AIG) in New York City. -
Hospitals to close after allegations of recruiting homeless for unnecessary care
The hospitals involved in a controversy in recent years involving the fraudulent recruiting of indigent patients will close. Hospital owner Pacific Health Corp. (PHC) in Tustin, CA, announced recently that it will close its three remaining Southern California hospitals. -
Shorter hours for interns can increase patient handoff risk
Johns Hopkins researchers say they have uncovered an unintended consequence of the move in recent years to reduce the legendarily long and onerous work hours of interns. Shorter work hours can increase the risks of patient handoff, they say. -
Legal Review & Commentary: Dialysis mistakes leads to wrongful death and a seven-figure settlement
The five children of a 65-year old woman settled a wrongful death suit against a dialysis clinic. -
Legal Review & Commentary: Gender discrimination leads to a $7 million settlement and a pain clinic to be named in the plaintiff’s honor
A female doctor claimed to have suffered years of gender discrimination from a hospitals chief of surgery.