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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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June 21 through 25 is a time to celebrate healthcare risk management professionals in your organization.
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Cyberattacks have targeted 911 dispatchers, emergency medical services over the past year.
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Healthcare professionals can find themselves in a quandary when they want to report fraud or other concerns within their organizations because doing so could require disclosure of protected health information. That could seem like a HIPAA violation; fortunately, there is a whistleblower exception that covers this scenario.
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The Office for Civil Rights announced its 18th settlement of an enforcement action in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative on March 26.
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With nearly 20 settlements so far, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is showing its determination to protect patients’ rights to obtain their medical records from healthcare entities. OCR announced its Right of Access Initiative in 2019 and vowed to “vigorously enforce” patients’ right to access their medical records. OCR continues investigating allegations of improper delays that potentially violated the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s right of access requirements (45 C.F.R. § 164.524).
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This case provides two meaningful lessons about medical malpractice jury trials and related expert witness testimony.