Healthcare Risk Management – April 1, 2016
April 1, 2016
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Improve On-Call ED Coverage by Making it Easier on Specialists
You come to work Monday morning and hear this tale from your emergency department: A patient presented in the ED over the weekend with compartment syndrome and needed a fasciotomy, but no specialist was available. None of the available physicians had done one since medical school, so the physician who drew the short straw studied the procedure on YouTube before proceeding.
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Risk Management Falls Under Criticism After a Patient is Forcibly Removed
Risk management at a Florida hospital was cited as insufficient in the state investigation following a high publicized incident in which a patient was forcibly removed, and the state rejected the hospital’s corrective action plan.
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Sexual Abuse and Harassment are Challenging Liability Areas to Address
In light of recent high profile cases of sexual assault and harassment in healthcare facilities, risk managers should assess whether their policies and procedures are strong enough to produce an adequate response when staff members or patients report these incidents, one experienced risk manager suggests.
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Hospitals sued — claims of sexual abuse, harassment
Two hospitals are facing lawsuits, as are several physicians and staff, in two cases in which healthcare professionals are accused of sexual abuse and sexual harassment.
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State boards don’t discipline many physicians for sexual misconduct, consumer rights group says
State medical boards are failing to protect the public from many doctors already known to have committed sexual misconduct, according to a recent report from Public Citizen, a non-profit, consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, DC.
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Minimize overrides of technology to improve patient safety
Patient safety could be improved by developing criteria for alerts that focus on opportunities for patient harm, while preventing alert fatigue and minimizing the need for overrides, according to recent research from the Pennsylvania Safety Authority in Harrisburg.
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More nurses, hospitalists being sued for malpractice, studies say
Separate reports indicate that nurses and hospitalists are being sued for malpractice more than in the past.
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Failure to Timely Diagnose Complication Leads to $1.57 Million Verdict for Hospital
In 2011, a woman underwent laparoscopic surgery to increase her likelihood of becoming pregnant. During the procedure, and unbeknownst to the woman and her obstetrician, the woman’s small bowel was perforated.
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Jury Awards Man’s Estate $950,000 After Physician Failed to Adequately Test for His Heart Condition
In 2008, a man went to a hospital complaining of chest pains. The man’s treating physician at the hospital administered tests and diagnosed him with a peptic ulcer.