Healthcare Risk Management
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Hospital revamps its security after psychiatric patient kills tech
A California state psychiatric hospital has improved the personal security systems for its staff members and revamped how it assesses potentially violent patients, with the changes coming five years after a technician was killed on the hospital grounds by a patient.
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Give special attention to the ED, or face significant liability
It can happen in any hospital: A patient comes to the emergency department and is determined to need psychiatric care, so a bed is requested. The patient waits, and waits, and waits. Three days later, the patient is still in the emergency department, and staff members realize he has a blood clot and pulmonary embolism that were prompted by immobility during the long wait.
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Jobs outlook improving in healthcare industry
The healthcare economy is improving enough that healthcare professionals are reporting significantly more confidence in their careers, and risk managers might have reason to feel confident in their futures.
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Incomes on the rise after being flat for six years
Incomes in healthcare risk management are inching upward after six years of stagnation. The jump isn’t much, but at least the trend is in the right direction.
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Risks increasing, but risk managers are losing traction in hospitals
At a time when the risks to hospitals and health systems are on the increase, some healthcare risk managers feel as though they are being pushed to the sidelines and their responsibilities delegated among other hospital administrators, says Leilani Kicklighter, a patient safety and risk management consultant with The Kicklighter Group in Tamarac, FL, and a past president of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management in Chicago.
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Medication mix-up leaves 51-year-old patient with permanent brain damage after heart surgery
In 2011, a 51-year-old man was undergoing heart surgery when complications requiring resuscitation arose. The man required cardioversion and was resuscitated after being shocked five or six times.
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Patient’s complaints of pain lead to incomplete exam and $2.2 million jury award
In 2012, a man involved in a logging accident severely injured his back. He was transported to a local hospital, where a physician ordered X-rays of the man’s back. During the course of the man’s X-rays, he complained of being in too much pain to complete the thoracic spine series the physician had ordered.
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Hospital safety scores show some improvements
The Hospital Safety Scores released recently by The Leapfrog Group show key shifts among many hospitals on the letter grades rating them on errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.
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HHS report: Hospital-acquired conditions decreasing
A recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that an estimated 87,000 fewer patients died in hospitals and nearly $20 billion in healthcare costs were saved as a result of a reduction in hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2014.
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DOJ recovers $1.9 billion from healthcare FCA cases
The Department of Justice obtained more than $3.5 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, and $1.9 billion came from companies and individuals in the healthcare industry.