Healthcare Risk Management
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Clinical Decision Software Highly Effective in OR
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) say advanced clinical decision support software can prevent up to 95% of medication errors in the operating room.
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Patient Perception of Safety Falling in Recent Research
Despite improvements in some key metrics for patient safety, consumers do not report a corresponding confidence in their quality of care.
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Outpatient Safety Overlooked with Focus on Inpatient
Despite years of efforts to improve patient safety, recent research indicates that nearly all the attention has been on inpatient care. Outpatient safety is being neglected and needs far more attention, researchers say.
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Kentucky Protects Clinicians from Criminal Charges
The state of Kentucky has responded to the sensational criminal prosecution of a nurse in neighboring Tennessee by enacting a law that shields healthcare providers from criminal prosecution for medical errors.
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Culture of Safety Results in Low Reported Harm Rate
A focused effort to create a just culture is paying off in big ways for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, which is seeing low rates of errors and patient harm while instilling a sense of safety responsibility at all levels.
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Missouri Appellate Court Reverses Trial Court’s Grant of Summary Judgment After Finding that Injured Patient’s Evidence Could Show Medical Negligence of Chiropractor
In a medical negligence case, an appellate court in Missouri recently reversed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment to a chiropractor defendant on the basis that there were factual issues that should have been decided by the jury. After a patient sued her chiropractor when she suffered three broken ribs during a treatment, the chiropractor defendant claimed that the patient was claiming medical negligence by pointing to her injury rather than showing that the chiropractor was negligent or that the chiropractor’s alleged negligence caused her injury.
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New Jersey Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal of Complaint After Failure to Offer an Affidavit of Merit in Both Specialties of Treating Physician
Recently, a New Jersey appellate court affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a medical malpractice plaintiff’s complaint for lacking an affidavit of merit, which often is a requirement in malpractice suits. The appeal of the trial court’s decision revolved around the sufficiency of an affidavit of merit in a situation where a defendant physician’s answer to the medical negligence complaint stated involvement in two specialties, but the plaintiff provided an affidavit of merit from a physician board-certified in only one of those specialties.
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Is Text Messaging Ever HIPAA-Compliant?
Text messaging is so convenient and common that it is tempting to use it for communicating with patients. But HIPAA applies, and the use of text messaging is allowed only when meeting some strict requirements.
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Patient Termination Requires Right Steps, Good Documentation
Terminating a relationship with a patient or banning someone from a hospital is never done lightly, and, fortunately, it does not happen often. But when it is necessary, healthcare organizations must tread carefully to ensure that the patient is afforded other opportunities and that the potential liabilities are minimized.
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Patient Advocacy System Shown to Lower Malpractice Costs
A patient advocacy reporting program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center was associated with a significant decrease in malpractice claim costs for high-risk clinicians in an orthopedic practice network, suggesting a strategy that other hospitals can employ.