Healthcare Risk Management
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You Must Respond Carefully When You Are Served With a Subpoena
Responding to subpoenas is a routine task for risk managers and general counsel, but just because it is routine doesn’t mean it should be taken lightly. There are right and wrong ways to respond, and your actions at this early stage of potential litigation can affect the outcome later.
Caution: Patients’ Printed Records May Not Match the Electronic Health Record
Most plaintiffs’ attorneys now request audit trails immediately with the first contact for e-discovery, and risk managers often groan when they think of the work involved. However, there is a reason to seek the audit trail for your own benefit: It might show more exculpatory evidence than a paper printout of the same file.
Church Amendment Protects Abortion Views
The Church Amendment that a physician is citing in her claims that a hospital restricted her speech on abortion normally is invoked by healthcare providers on the other side of the controversial issue, says John E. Petite, JD, an attorney with the law firm Greensfelder in St. Louis.
Complaint Alleges Effort to Silence Doctor
In the Office for Civil Rights complaint filed by Diane J. Horvath-Cosper, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist and fellow at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, she outlines what she says was an insistence by hospital administrators to stop her from talking publicly about abortion.
Hospital Faces OCR Complaint for Gag Order on Abortion
The case raises important questions about how much a healthcare employer can restrict employees’ private activities.
Radiologist’s Failure to Diagnose Breast Cancer Results in Jury Verdict of $6.9 Million
In 2008, a 39-year-old woman underwent a mammogram. The doctor who reviewed the results reported that the calcifications, or calcium deposits, found in the woman’s right breast were benign. Although a prior mammogram screening in 2003 revealed no such calcifications, and the woman’s medical records reported a family history of breast cancer, the doctor did not order further diagnostic testing of the woman’s right breast.Relying Exclusively on Family for Medical History Breaches Standard of Care, Yields $4.58M Verdict
On June 8, 2012, a 33-year-old woman drove to the hospital and was complaining of severe head pain and other symptoms. She told doctors that she had a history of brain swelling that was caused by a pre-existing condition known as lupus and was being monitored by a neurologist. The hospital diagnosed the woman with a migraine, administered a “migraine cocktail,” and then discharged her without providing a neurological consult, performing diagnostic imaging of her brain, or reviewing her past medical history. The next day, the woman died.
Changes to Conditions of Participation Proposed
CMS has proposed changes to the Conditions of Participation that the agency says will improve patient safety and quality.
$53 Million Award for Birth Brain Injury
In what is believed to be the biggest birth injury verdict ever in Chicago’s Cook County, a jury has ordered the University of Chicago Medical Center to pay $53 million in a case involving a 12-year-old boy who was born with a serious brain injury.
CNO Says Hospital Fired Her for Criticism of Electronic Medical Record
A former nursing executive at Sonoma West Medical Center (SWMC) in Sebastopol, CA, says she was fired for raising concerns that the facility’s electronic medical record was a threat to patient safety. The electronic medical record was developed by one of the hospital’s board members.