Hospital
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Protect Metadata When Disclosing Information From Electronic Health Records
Information from electronic health records can contain metadata that are not immediately recognizable to the user, but could contain specific protected health information about patients. Inadvertently providing this metadata could provide useful information to the opposition in a malpractice case, and could create other problems for the patient.
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Slip and Fall Prevention Different for Employees Than Patients
Risk managers always address fall prevention with patients, but do employees get enough attention? Healthcare employees are at risk of falls every day, and the tactics that work best with patients may not be the most effective when preventing potential workers’ compensation claims.
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Counselors and Therapists Face Special Liability Risks
Counselors face substantial liability risks that may not receive as much attention as other healthcare professionals, and the exposure may be increasing. The authors of a closed claim report found that $7.8 million was paid for counselor malpractice claims over a five-year period. The Counselor Liability 2019 Claim Report found that $8 million was paid during the previous 10 years.
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‘I’m Sorry’ Legislation Not Showing Anticipated Results
The “I’m Sorry” movement has gained steam in the last few years. Risk managers have been encouraging physicians to show their regret and concern with patients after adverse events — not only because it is the right thing to do, but also in hopes of reducing potential liability. Thirty-six states passed apology laws, according to the Sorry Works! organization, which has promoted apologies after adverse events. But after years of trying that approach, is it really working out that way? Not necessarily, although that does not mean the apology approach is not worthwhile.
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Social Media Research Presents Many Unresolved Ethical Issues
Direct-to-consumer wellness products, location-tracking apps, and access to personal data on social networks present both exciting opportunities and significant ethical worries for researchers. The authors of a recent paper proposed steps the scientific community can take to ensure social media data are used ethically. The paper was prompted in part by the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, involving allegations that the firm used data improperly obtained from Facebook to build voter profiles.
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Testing an Intervention to Reinforce Ethical Research Practices
Historically, the value of scientific research has been undermined to some degree by lack of reproducible results, unpublished data, and studies that achieve statistical significance but are false positives. Some of these trends are fueled by researchers’ acceptance of “questionable research practices (QRPs),” researchers noted in a recent study.
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Ensure Study Participants Understand That Biobanking Is Research
In a recent study, parents in a pediatric ICU were approached to give consent to storage of their children’s specimens in a biobank for future research. In surveying parents afterward, the researchers found that almost half of those asked about the biobank did not seem to understand that storage of clinical specimens was a research pursuit.
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Small IRB Shows How to Handle Challenges
One small IRB has evolved in less than a decade from a board that had no full-time or part-time IRB professionals to having its own IRB administrator with part-time assistance. Limited staffing is one of the top challenges of small research programs.