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Suppose you were reviewing a new malpractice claim and a nurse told you that the surgeon happened to be on the phone when the patient made a mistake that injured the patient. Surely the surgeon was talking to another physician or reviewing lab results for the patient, right?
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In many cases, inappropriate phone calls are more obvious to people other than the patient or the risk manager.
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The major improvements in patient safety in the obstetrics unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston were prompted by a series of tragic errors that led to a stillbirth in 2000.
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Risk managers are doing something right in the emergency department and obstetrical units, according to new data showing the frequency and severity of hospital claims are at new lows.
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Statutes of limitations can be key in determining whether some malpractice cases move forward or are dead in the water, so a federal appeals panel has asked the Mississippi Supreme Court in Jackson to clarify when the clock starts ticking for medical malpractice claims.
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An elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease suffered severe bruising on her arms while staying at a residential care facility. Although the facility's director initially told the woman's daughter that the bruises were caused when the director had to restrain the woman from attacking her, the daughter subsequently learned that the bruises resulted when the director became angry at the resident and grabbed and twisted her arms while dragging her across the floor.
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When the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Medical Center discovered that 22 health care workers had used bogus certificates in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to prove they were current with required training, leaders at the hospital were shocked.
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Verifying the qualifications of staff can sometimes mean trying to decide when embellishment crosses the line into falsification, says A. Kevin Troutman, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Fisher & Phillips in New Orleans, who assists hospitals with risk management projects.
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Once you start checking applicants' qualifications diligently, you may be surprised at just how much people lie and exaggerate, says Robert Mather, CEO of Pre-Employ.com, a company in Redding, CA, that conducts background checks for health care providers and other employers.
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The recent research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, showing an increase in reported drug errors, was based on data in the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Adverse Event Reporting System, which has been in place since 1998.
