Compliance
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Stress Decreases Ability to Focus, Increases Errors
Stress can lead to two distinct types of attention problems with clinicians. When under a great deal of stress, some people will focus intently on the one task viewed as primary, such as a surgeon who concentrates so much on the surgical activity that the bigger picture of the patient’s status is neglected. Others may go in the opposite direction and try to divide their attention among so many tasks that none receive adequate attention.
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Provider Stress Can Trickle Down to Affect Patient Safety
The healthcare industry can be stressful for everyone involved, with clinicians sometimes suffering greatly from the workload, time demands, bureaucracy, and the emotional nature of their work. Minimizing stress is important for the health of the caregivers, but also to maintain patient safety. When staff are exhausted, experiencing depersonalization from their work and feeling less effective, they are more likely to fail to follow practices that support high-quality, safer care.
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1914 Case Established Informed Consent Principles
A 1914 case from the New York Court of Appeals established some of the foundation for what the healthcare community now thinks of as the informed consent process.
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Informed Consent Must Be More Than a Clerical Task
Informed consent is a fundamental part of the healthcare process. Risk managers know the risks that can come with failing to adequately educate patients and document their consent. But the procedure is so common and performed so often that there is potential for it to become routine and less thorough.
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Ethical Issues and Standards in Case Management, Part 1
This month, we will discuss principles related to ethics and how they affect one’s role as an RN case manager or a social worker. These principles include patient advocacy, which applies to all the roles and functions that case managers perform.
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Social Engineering Scams, Attacks Can Threaten HIPAA Security
Despite years of educating healthcare staff about the need for data security and the myriad ways people can worm their way into an otherwise secure system, employees still can fall prey to social engineering scams and allow HIPAA data breaches.
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Checklist Items for Selecting a Compliant Vendor
There is no quick and easy way to select a vendor to trust with HIPAA-sensitive data. It requires some legwork to determine what kind of security they have in place and possibly identify any shortcomings.
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Vendors Continue to Be Weak Point in HIPAA Security
Vendors always have been one of the most worrisome parts of HIPAA security because hospitals and health systems must rely on them for the appropriate technological and physical security for protected data — without the ability to dictate exactly how. Research shows that those fears are well founded, with many health organizations experiencing an increase in investigations and fines from HHS that are related to poor vendor HIPAA security.
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Misreading of Test Results Causes More Harm, Results in $3.5 Million Verdict
A lesson from this case is the varying standards that courts and juries apply when evaluating the sufficiency of evidence. This case focused on an alleged “increased risk of harm,” which is less common than a typical medical malpractice action involving a patient directly suffering harm. The patient here presented expert witness testimony concerning ejection fractions and the course of treatment that the expert contended satisfied the standard of care in such circumstances. The defendant hospital argued that this evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to support the jury’s significant verdict.
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Gastroenterologist’s Negligent Procedure Results in Patient’s Death, $4.8 Million Verdict
One of the most critical lessons is the importance of experts in medical malpractice cases. Since medical malpractice cases almost always involve issues beyond the knowledge of laypersons, experts play a vital role in the litigation process and in convincing a jury that a physician or care provider satisfied, or failed to satisfy, the applicable standard of care.