-
Firm policies and procedures might be necessary to reduce cesarean rates, but resist the temptation to dictate every decision in the birthing process, says Samuel O. Southern, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Smith Moore Leatherwood in Raleigh, NC.
-
The Cooper Health System in Newark, NJ, has agreed with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Jersey and the state of New Jersey to pay $12.6 million to settle allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act and New Jersey False Claims Act by making improper payments to physicians under so-called consulting and compensation agreements as it sought to build its cardiology program.
-
When doctors, nurses, and other hospital operating room staff follow a written safety checklist to respond when a patient experiences cardiac arrest, severe allergic reaction, bleeding followed by an irregular heartbeat, or other crisis during surgery, they are nearly 75% less likely to miss a critical clinical step, according to a new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
-
Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of patient safety strategies employed at hospitals across the country, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a report identifying the top 10 patient safety strategies that can be implemented immediately by healthcare providers.
-
The risk of malpractice allegations is a major barrier to reducing caesarean rates, says Charles W. Fisher, JD, principal with the law firm of Kitch in Detroit.
-
Washington State surgeons recently announced standardized guidelines for preoperative care in the form of pre-surgical checklists and tools available to all surgeons to use in their offices or by patients at home to ensure that the health of patients is optimized before surgery.
-
News: A 52-year-old patient underwent bariatric surgery at the defendant hospital. Prior to surgery, the patients weight exceeded 500 pounds.
-
With healthcare reform efforts encouraging hospitals to align with physicians more closely, questions are arising about how to do that without running afoul of rules prohibiting kickbacks and collusion.
-
In the recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) opinion regarding co-management, the OIG noted that the arrangement was not protected by any Anti-Kickback Statute safe harbor because the aggregate payment to the group was not set in advance, explains Janice Anderson, JD, shareholder with the law firm of Polsinelli Shughar in Chicago.
-
