Because clinical evaluation often depends on diagnostic tests, diagnostic physicians have a responsibility to notify referring clinicians when test results reveal urgent or unexpected findings. According to a report in the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR), the rapid growth of diagnostic testing appears to be placing physicians at greater risk for medical malpractice claims for test communication failures.
Deciding who pays for a new physician's tail coverage usually hinges on who has the leverage in the hiring situation, says Mary Anne Hilliard, JD, BSN, CPHRM, chief risk counsel with Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, and president of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) in Chicago.
News: A 14-year-old boy was taken to a local hospital emergency department (ED) with complaints of sharp pain on the right side of his face and his right shoulder after being kicked in the head by his mother. The boy reported that his pain level was 10 on a scale of 1-10; however, the triage nurse indicated his was a "non-urgent" case.