Healthcare Risk Management
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Choose Outside Counsel Carefully; Avoid Common Mistakes
When risk managers are involved in selecting outside counsel for the hospital or health system, the task can seem daunting. Choosing the right counsel involves considering a multitude of factors, including fees, availability, experience, size of the firm, and even whether it seems like a good fit culturally.
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Include Communications in Adverse Event Plans
When planning to respond effectively to adverse events, it is important to include a crisis communication plan. A key part of the plan is a designated crisis team including members for each defined functional area of the organization.
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Checklist for Responding to Adverse Events
Risk managers should create a checklist for responding to adverse events to ensure the most effective response in a potentially stressful and hectic environment, experts say. Risk management should visit the scene of the incident — the floor, the procedure room, ICU, radiology department — prepared to conduct what amounts to a triage of the incident.
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Develop Plan for Responding to Adverse Events
Adverse events happen without warning, yet they require a carefully planned response to minimize damage and facilitate the most effective follow-up investigation. Facilities should plan now for how to respond to an unexpected death, a serious accident, or potential malpractice. It is critical to prepare an adverse event plan so that the response is not cobbled together in the heat of the moment, when emotions are running high.
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Boards of Directors on Notice With Recent Caremark Decisions
Two recent court rulings indicate courts may extend a corporate board’s duty to monitor further than the previous norm. Healthcare corporate directors could be at an increased risk of shareholder lawsuits and personal liability.
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Expert’s Inadequate Testimony Leads to Dismissal of Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
Although the facts of the case seem to indicate the physician acted within the accepted standard of care, the outcome may have been different had the patient selected a more experienced, better-suited expert and presented his claim with more specificity.
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Birth Injury Litigation Results in $7.5 Million Settlement
This case raises a few lessons for physicians and care providers: whether the physicians failed to preserve and test either cord blood gases or the placenta, whether the physicians breached the applicable standard of care regarding the use of labor-inducing drugs and failing to monitor the fetus prior to delivery, and whether the physicians failed to ensure employees were aware of and complied with the hospital’s policies and procedures.
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Sparsely Charted History and Physical Complicates Med/Mal Defense
Thorough charting on the history and physical of an ED patient can prove the standard of care was met. Still, the medical record often contains little more than a series of checkboxes.
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Patient Safety Act Affords Protection for Adverse Event Investigations
The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 affords substantial protections from discovery for information related to adverse events. Hospital leaders and clinicians often do not fully understand how to use these protections.
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Opioid-Related Claims Show Need for Good Processes
The opioid crisis continues to create increased liability risks for healthcare providers, who must contend with more scrutiny over prescribing and management practices. A review of closed claims indicates hospitals and physicians can improve the way they follow guidelines and processes designed to reduce the risk.