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A Philadelphia hospital is facing a lawsuit from the relatives of a man whose chemist wife is accused of poisoning him with thallium.
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Tertiary care providers can be so influenced by seeing the end results of a supposed error the patient's condition is worsened that they make overly harsh judgments about the previous provider's care, says Matson Sewell, MS, MPH, CPHRM, principal with Matson Sewell Healthcare Consulting in Sacramento, CA. Those judgments can cause serious damage to the hospitals.
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Paul Simon said there were 50 ways to leave your lover, and Grena Porto, RN, MS, ARM, CPHRM, says there are at least that many ways to say you're sorry ... without admitting responsibility.
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A $3.3 million verdict against a doctor who apologized to his patient's family for her death is leading some healthcare professionals to wonder if the push for apologies and transparency has a dark side. Are risk managers encouraging physicians to say something that actually will work against them in court?
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The question of whether to inform patients of a previous provider's error was highlighted recently in a discussion posted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Thomas H. Gallagher, MD, associate professor in the Departments of Medicine and Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington in Seattle, discussed the case of a 4-year-old boy whose brain swelling was not detected in a CT scan.
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When the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology released an opinion on preparing for clinical emergencies last April1, it was part of what one physician thinks is a ramp-up of emphasis on improved patient safety and quality improvement initiatives in the specialty.
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In August, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule regarding Medicare payment policies and rates for next year.
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Most accredited hospitals have been reporting ORYX performance data to the Joint Commission (JC) on a monthly basis since 2002. But beginning on January 1, 2012, the JC is putting teeth behind these measures, requiring an 85% compliance rate on a single composite rate, reflecting all accountability measures, in order to meet accreditation standards.
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Patient safety organizations in both Pennsylvania and Massachusetts issued alerts over the summer related to patient safety in radiology.
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The Florida Hospital Association (FHA) has partnered with the American College of Surgeons and its National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) to improve the care surgical patients get through increased use of data.
