Healthcare Risk Management – March 1, 2017
March 1, 2017
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Safety Risks in Food Services Can Be Underestimated
Food services can play an important role in patient safety, but may not receive enough attention.
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Allergies Most Common in Dietary Errors
Most dietary errors are related to food allergies, according to an analysis of errors reported to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority over five years.
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Recipe Ingredients Must Be Monitored
In addition to the patient-specific menus, ensuring patient safety requires tracking all the recipes and ingredients used in all the food items.
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Newborns at Risk from Tired Parents, Family
The scenario is dreadful, but it actually happens with some regularity: A mother holding her newborn child, perhaps nursing, falls asleep from exhaustion. She either accidentally smothers or drops the child, resulting in serious injury or death.
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Risk Matrix Helps Staff Make Decisions, Take Responsibility
A risk matrix can help hospital leaders and staff identify issues most likely to happen and to cause the most harm.
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HHS Sets Conditions for Aiding Patients with Transportation, Discounts
Revisions to the anti-kickback statute and civil monetary penalties will affect how hospitals offer transportation and discounts to patients. The changes provide safe harbor when the hospital meets certain conditions.
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OIG Spells Out How to Provide Transport, Goods Without Penalty
The revised transportation rule provides safe harbor for free or discounted local transportation services provided to “established patients” by “eligible entities.”
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UPMC Settles Neurosurgery Malpractice Cases
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center settled two medical malpractice lawsuits against the hospital’s neurosurgeons, cases that stemmed from a federal false claims lawsuit alleging surgeons were incentivized to perform unnecessary procedures.
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Study: Apology Laws Don’t Reduce Malpractice Claims
Laws that allow doctors to apologize to patients after an adverse event are intended to protect physicians who want to say they’re sorry but not have that considered an admission of guilt, but their effectiveness is questionable, according to a new study.
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Lost Devices Lead to OCR Finding More Noncompliance
A hospital’s loss of a BlackBerry and a laptop containing unsecured electronic protected health information led to an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights that found more widespread HIPAA violations.
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$14.5 Million Verdict for Premature Infant’s Injuries
A misdiagnosis and lack of follow-up testing led to an infant's permanent injury.
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Hospital Ordered to Pay $1.7 Million for Fatal Excessive Fluid Administration
Lack of postoperative monitoring led to the death of a patient given excessive fluids.
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Presence Settlement Shows Need for Timely Notification When Breach Occurs
For the first time, a healthcare provider is settling a HIPAA violation based on failure to quickly report a breach.
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USB Drive Containing ePHI Stolen
The Office of Civil Rights recently announced a HIPAA settlement based on the theft of a USB data storage device with unsecured electronic protected health information.