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Disclosing a medical error is never easy, but it can become especially complicated when you need to tell the patient that a previous provider was in the wrong. This delicate situation often requires communication with the other provider before you tell the patient anything.
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The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) in Florida has fined Louisville, KY-based Humana $3.4 million for failing to report suspected or confirmed Medicaid fraud to the state on a timely basis.
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A woman with a normal pregnancy was admitted to the hospital after going into labor. The woman first was seen by the attending OB physician, who later went off duty. Another physician assumed responsibility in the afternoon and was extremely busy. An examination of the woman showed that the baby was occiput posterior.
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Healthcare providers know that many medical malpractice claims are without merit, but the common wisdom is that a great many of those are settled anyway. A new report, however, indicates that only one in five malpractice claims against doctors leads to a settlement or other payout.
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A Philadelphia hospital is facing a lawsuit from the relatives of a man whose chemist wife is accused of poisoning him with thallium.
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Tertiary care providers can be so influenced by seeing the end results of a supposed error the patient's condition is worsened that they make overly harsh judgments about the previous provider's care, says Matson Sewell, MS, MPH, CPHRM, principal with Matson Sewell Healthcare Consulting in Sacramento, CA. Those judgments can cause serious damage to the hospitals.
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Paul Simon said there were 50 ways to leave your lover, and Grena Porto, RN, MS, ARM, CPHRM, says there are at least that many ways to say you're sorry ... without admitting responsibility.
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A $3.3 million verdict against a doctor who apologized to his patient's family for her death is leading some healthcare professionals to wonder if the push for apologies and transparency has a dark side. Are risk managers encouraging physicians to say something that actually will work against them in court?
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The question of whether to inform patients of a previous provider's error was highlighted recently in a discussion posted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Thomas H. Gallagher, MD, associate professor in the Departments of Medicine and Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington in Seattle, discussed the case of a 4-year-old boy whose brain swelling was not detected in a CT scan.
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When the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology released an opinion on preparing for clinical emergencies last April1, it was part of what one physician thinks is a ramp-up of emphasis on improved patient safety and quality improvement initiatives in the specialty.
