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ED experts agree that when patients feel they have been treated poorly, or that medical mistakes have been made, the most effective way of diffusing the situation and avoiding litigation is to listen carefully to the complaint, admit mistakes if they have been made, and then take concrete action to demonstrate your desire to prevent such mistakes in the future.
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Risk assessment might be a critical strategy to use in your effort to minimize lawsuits, but it shouldn't be the first, says Tom Syzek, MD, FACEP, director of risk management for Dayton, OH-based Premier Health Care Services.
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If ED physicians and nurses could choose only one strategy for avoiding lawsuits, it should be to keep patient satisfaction levels high, say several experts interviewed by ED Management.
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Several EDs have introduced physician scribes to free up doctors to spend more time with their patients, but most of those departments use paper charting. At Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, CA, physician scribes work within the context of an electronic medical record (EMR).
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With a vaccine shortage projected for novel H1N1 influenza A, only the highest priority groups are likely to be offered the shot when initial lots are cleared for distribution this fall.
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Top executives of Detroit's five major hospital systems, in an effort to offset what some see as "inappropriate" ED care, i.e., primary care services for uninsured or underinsured patients, are considering a plan that would put federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) inside their hospitals' EDs.
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If you're in a brand-new ED and patient flow remains an issue, expansion is clearly out of the question, but that doesn't mean you can't successfully address the problem.
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[Editor's note: This is the second column in a two-part series on the relationship between medical decision making and documentation. In the May issue, we covered the key components of medical decision making. This month we address risk as an element of decision-making. This quarterly column on ED coding is written by Caral Edelberg, CPC, CCS-P, CHC, president of Edelberg Compliance Associates in Baton Rouge, LA.]
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ED managers may find themselves in the spotlight as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has renewed its commitment to scrutinize not-for-profit organizations, which include a large number of hospitals.
