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Risk managers may participate in the management of a facility building or remodeling project by overseeing the myriad hazards and liabilities that can crop up along the way, but you may be missing a great opportunity to advance your own concerns if you don't immerse yourself in the earliest stages of the design process.
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Health and Hospital Corp., the parent company of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, has settled a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died on a waiting room floor - but went unnoticed for more than an hour.
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In addition to the other ways that the country's economic downturn is affecting health care providers, emergency departments (EDs) are now seeing an increase in the number of patients leaving the ED early, because they do not want to be hit with a big medical bill when they are without health insurance and possibly without a job.
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As U.S. deaths from the H1N1 virus have mounted in recent months, media reports began to include the inevitable comments from hospital spokespeople that the patients who died had "pre-existing conditions," with no specifics given.
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News: A woman presented at a hospital emergency department (ED) with abdominal pain. X-rays and a CT scan were performed. The emergency physician discussed the findings with a radiologist who noted the findings in his report. The emergency physician noted the CT as negative and ordered the woman to take morphine and fentanyl. Twelve hours later, the woman was seen by a different physician, who reviewed the previous record but did not mention the X-rays or the CT scan.
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Testifying before a crowded hearing in Washington, DC, on the oversight of helicopter medical services, the head of a leading air ambulance organization recently promised lawmakers that the dismal safety record of the industry can be improved.
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Every risk manager wants to believe that the credentialing process has properly vetted all the organization's health care professionals to ensure that they are qualified and have no known criminal record. But that is not always the case. Too often, risk managers get a phone call alerting them that one of their staff or physicians has a problem that did not show up in the credentialing process.
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Illustrating the potential liability when a test result falls through the cracks, a Philadelphia jury recently awarded a widow $2.19 million in a malpractice suit against St. Joseph's Hospital and two ED physicians.
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News: A woman suffered cardiac arrest while at home. Hospital paramedics arrived, but attempts to resuscitate her with a Lifepak 11 monitor and defibrillator failed. Forty minutes later, the woman was pronounced dead. The decedent's estate sued the hospital and was awarded $5.3 million in damages.
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Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are clearly on the radar of Kathleen Sebelius, the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She recently called for action to prevent HAIs in praising two new HHS reports on the quality of health care in America.
