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The results of an analysis of closed nursing claims indicate costs have recently risen, and the increase is worse in some specialties. The average total incurred for each professional liability claim involving nurses has increased from similar analyses in 2011 and 2015. Costs increased to more than $210,000 per claim, a 4% increase since 2015.
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New research is shedding light on alarm fatigue and how to combat it. False alarms may be more problematic than the overall noise level in a unit.
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Healthcare employees’ use of social media brings the risks of violating HIPAA, disseminating incorrect information, and damaging the reputation of the hospital or health system. However, social media is so pervasive in most people’s lives that it is difficult to ban its use outright, even during work hours. That means healthcare organizations must carefully create social media policies that acknowledge its use by employees but set limits on what can be posted.
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Burnout and severe stress brought on by the pandemic may affect risk managers and patient safety professionals more than commonly known. Most attention related to stress is focused on frontline clinicians, but the effect on risk managers appears to be substantial.
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Hospitals and other healthcare organizations could benefit from a COVID-19 “glow” or “halo effect” in which medical malpractice juries look more favorably on defendants because of the public’s positive perception of healthcare workers. The portrayal of doctors and nurses as heroes might leave a lasting impression that affects how jurors perceive defense arguments.
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Plaintiffs expected to challenge ruling in ongoing saga over Houston facility’s policy.
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Controversy emerges over recent change from “physician assistant” to “physician associate.”
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Chaplains often serve on ethics committees, as ethics consultants, and as institutional review board members. Yet there are no standardized ethics curricula in Clinical Pastoral Education programs.
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A Virginia-based health system has learned much about moral distress and why it is important to recognize and intervene.
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Three recent reports explain how the healthcare industry can improve diversity and inclusion.
