Healthcare Risk Management – August 1, 2004
August 1, 2004
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Underwriters are demanding more and looking more closely for potential flaws
Insurers continue to exert pressure on risk managers, and industry leaders say you should be getting a closer look from underwriters than you have ever had before. -
Self-assessments correct problems and buff image
Self-assessments can be used to address known problems within the organization and also to promote a risk managers stature, says Kenneth W. Felton, RN, MS, FASHRM, senior vice president and health care practice leader with Webster Insurance in Waterbury, CT, and a former hospital risk manager. -
Step-by-step process helps assess ambulatory care risk
Risk managers must investigate potential exposures with a critical eye, especially when the area in question is a new acquisition for the organization, says Donna Young, CPHRM, FASHRM, vice president of risk management services with Mutual Insurance Co. of Arizona in Phoenix. -
Who might fill the role of your patient safety officer?
If you dont already have a patient safety officer in your institution, it might just be a matter of time before you do. But should you be the person who fills that role? And if youre not, how does that new position fit in with your role in the organization? -
Hallway talk can violate patient confidentiality
Have you ever been walking through the hospital and overheard staff talking about patients? So have plenty of other people, according to new research that warns such overheard conversations can be a serious breach of patient confidentiality. -
Surcharge at the heart of covering high insurance
A practice of 150 obstetrician-gynecologists in Connecticut is planning to charge an extra $500 per pregnancy starting Sept. 1 in response to its high medical liability premiums, even though the state attorney general say such a surcharge probably is illegal. -
Doctor sues to fight for rights of whistle-blowers
A physician in California physician recently sued the Florida Medical Association in Tallahassee and three other doctors in an effort to fight what he says is an attempt to discourage doctors from testifying against others in medical malpractice suits. -
Complaint: ‘Peer review’ of witnesses is intimidation
This is an excerpt from the lawsuit filed by John Fullerton, MD, a San Francisco physician who accuses the Florida Medical Association in Tallahassee of intimidating doctors who testify in medical malpractice cases. -
Nurse stole pain meds from dying patients, police say
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox recently announced charges against a Howell, MI, nursing home nurse supervisor that accuse him of stealing prescription painkillers from hospice patients. -
AMA says Massachusetts joins those in liability crisis
The American Medical Association recently announced that Massachusetts has become the 20th state in a full-blown medical liability crisis due to its deteriorating medical liability climate and the growing threat of patients losing access to care. -
Reader Questions
Outpatient clinic can be OK for injured employees; Diplomacy required when patients want to leave ED -
Legal Review & Commentary: Unnecessary and negligent surgical procedure leads to death and a $1.4 million verdict
This case highlights potential concern in the areas of communication, informed consent, appropriate certification, and general risk management protocol. -
Legal Review & Commentary: Classic appendicitis goes undetected, leads to death
What this means to you: This case highlights several causes of preventable hospital errors, including poor communication among staff, overworked or minimally trained workers, a shortage of appropriately trained staff, and a faulty system of checks and balances. -
HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Many health care organizations still remain a long way from security compliance
Even though less than a year remains before the HIPAA security rule takes effect April 21, 2005, many health care organizations are a long way from compliance, according to an assessment by Washington, DC-based URAC, the only organization offering a security accreditation program based directly on the HIPAA security rule. -
HIPAA Regulatory Alert: OCR reports more than 5,000 complaints
As of April 2004, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) had received more than 5,000 complaints from individuals about alleged HIPAA privacy violations. -
HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Working Group concerned about claims rejections
The HIPAA Implementation Working Group, a coalition formed to help providers and vendors better understand the process by which the HIPAA electronic standards are developed and modified and to increase provider and vendor representation in that process, has contacted Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Mark McClellan to express concern over a CMS instruction to fiscal intermediaries to reject claims lacking certain data elements not needed by Medicare for claims adjudication. -
HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Vendors agree on HIPAA interpretation 43% of time
The HIPAA Conformance Certification Organization says its Common Compliance Assessment Process determined that, on average, the nations leading HIPAA translation and validation vendors agree in their interpretation of compliance 43% of the time, up from an average of 35% on all transactions in 2003.