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All patients treated in the Community Health Network's hospitals in Indiana are given a brochure that describes the Call FIRST (Family Initiated Rapid Screening Team) that serves as a safety net when patients or family members think their concerns are not being addressed. These are some excerpts from the brochure:
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Many health care providers are considering adopting the idea of a hotline that patients and family members can call when they think their concerns are being taken lightly by their immediate caregivers, but some risk managers might wonder if the phone will be ringing off the hook with trivial complaints and misunderstandings.
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More than one-third of hospital medication errors that reach the patient involve seniors, making them an especially vulnerable population in U.S. health care facilities, according to the most recent data on adverse events collected by the United States Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit organization in Rockville, MD.
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Graduates of certain U.S. medical schools are more likely to be sued than others, according to a recent report in a safety journal (Quality and Safety in Health Care 2003; 12:330-336).
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Health care workers who were vaccinated as children may be protected against fatal smallpox infection even if they declined to participate in recent immunization efforts, according to a recent study.
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Pediatrics program just the beginning of safety overhaul; Duke identifies corrective plan of action for patient safety
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Risk managers often look at the emergency department as a little like a container of potato salad left out in the sun. Its a Petri dish for all the terrible things that can happen in your hospital, says one expert. That attitude has some basis in fact, she says, but there are specific actions you can take to reduce the risk.
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In addition to concentrating on the five conditions that lead to most ED malpractice claims, there are specific strategies you can employ to reduce the overall liability risk in that department, says Andrew S. Kaufman, JD, a partner with Kaufman, Borgeest & Ryan in New York City.
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Hospital security often suffers from complacency and poorly defined roles for the security staff, says a specialist who helps health care providers improve their programs. One of the best ways to improve your security is to make sure your officers arent misused as impromptu assistants for all manner of scut work, he says.
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If your institution is the lead story on the evening news, chances are good that it wont be for all the right reasons. Rather, youll find that the risk management department is suddenly faced with the challenge of saving the institutions reputation by saying the right thing in the right way.
