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A government laptop computer containing sensitive medical information on 2,500 patients enrolled in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study was stolen in February, according to a recent report in The Washington Post.
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This is an excerpt from the memorandum sent to all University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), employees at 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 31, 2008, by chief compliance and privacy officer Carole A. Klove:
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Every risk manager worries about the obstetrics unit, where the number of adverse events may be small but the scope of the tragedy and liability can be huge.
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One of the most common threats to patient safety in obstetrics is the inability, or hesitation, of staff to clearly state their concern about a patient's status, says Edmund F. Funai, MD, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. Too often, one clinician is concerned about a patient but does not effectively communicate that concern to others.
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If you allow a live surgery broadcast, you should include some requirements for the company doing the broadcast, says Stacy Gulick, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Garfunkel in Great Neck, NY, and a former hospital risk manager.
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An infant abduction was quickly solved in part because the hospital used an infant alarm that quickly alerted staff to the kidnapping, according to hospital and police officials in Sanford, FL.
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An elderly woman was admitted to the hospital complaining of constipation and suffering from septic shock. She subsequently suffered an interruption in her gastrointestinal (GI) motor activity, after which she was medicated and transferred to a second hospital for further treatment.
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Once a privacy breach occurs with a patient's medical records, the risk manager must act quickly and decisively, says Layna Cook, JD, an attorney specializing in health care risk management with the law firm McGlinchey Stafford in Baton Rouge, LA. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires mitigation when a violation occurs, Cook notes.
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The Joint Commission's sentinel event database includes five cases that resulted in four deaths and affected four adults and one child, according to Mark R. Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, president of The Joint Commission.
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The criminal charge filed against a patient who was forced to undergo a rectal exam may have been one factor that led to a civil lawsuit against the hospital, say legal observers.
