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Checklist for Responding to Adverse Events

Risk managers should create a checklist for responding to adverse events to ensure the most effective response in a potentially stressful and hectic environment, experts say. Risk management should visit the scene of the incident — the floor, the procedure room, ICU, radiology department — prepared to conduct what amounts to a triage of the incident.

Develop Plan for Responding to Adverse Events

Adverse events happen without warning, yet they require a carefully planned response to minimize damage and facilitate the most effective follow-up investigation. Facilities should plan now for how to respond to an unexpected death, a serious accident, or potential malpractice. It is critical to prepare an adverse event plan so that the response is not cobbled together in the heat of the moment, when emotions are running high.

Boards of Directors on Notice With Recent Caremark Decisions

Two recent court rulings indicate courts may extend a corporate board’s duty to monitor further than the previous norm. Healthcare corporate directors could be at an increased risk of shareholder lawsuits and personal liability.

Pregnant Women Face ‘Default’ Exclusion From Clinical Trials

With the revised Common Rule removing pregnant women from the list of “vulnerable populations” in 2019, it is time for IRBs to reconsider the default exclusion of expectant mothers from clinical trials, a bioethicist argued in a new paper.

Building Foundational Trust Among Minority Populations Is First Step

Lack of trust is an important issue affecting recruitment of underrepresented minorities in research studies. When there is little trust for medical and research professionals among a particular underrepresented minority group, it is important for research organizations to build a foundation for trust before recruiting people for a particular study. Trust issues can be ingrained in the culture, or based on individuals’ personal experiences in healthcare.

Study: Minorities Remain Underrepresented in Cancer Trials

A study of clinical trials involving cancer drugs over the past decade shows that the problem of studies enrolling too few racial and ethnic minorities has not improved, although the issue has been raised publicly for years.

Expert’s Inadequate Testimony Leads to Dismissal of Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Although the facts of the case seem to indicate the physician acted within the accepted standard of care, the outcome may have been different had the patient selected a more experienced, better-suited expert and presented his claim with more specificity.

Birth Injury Litigation Results in $7.5 Million Settlement

This case raises a few lessons for physicians and care providers: whether the physicians failed to preserve and test either cord blood gases or the placenta, whether the physicians breached the applicable standard of care regarding the use of labor-inducing drugs and failing to monitor the fetus prior to delivery, and whether the physicians failed to ensure employees were aware of and complied with the hospital’s policies and procedures.

Sparsely Charted History and Physical Complicates Med/Mal Defense

Thorough charting on the history and physical of an ED patient can prove the standard of care was met. Still, the medical record often contains little more than a series of checkboxes.

Patient Safety Act Affords Protection for Adverse Event Investigations

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 affords substantial protections from discovery for information related to adverse events. Hospital leaders and clinicians often do not fully understand how to use these protections.