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Sentinel events at Childrens Hospital Boston have been traced to poor communication between residents and attending physicians, prompting a federal investigation and a plan by the hospital to overhaul how the two groups interact. The hospital is responding to the tragedies with a plan designed to make sure that attending physicians dont leave the younger physicians with too much responsibility by poorly communicating.
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Everyone in health care still is sorting through exactly what the final Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act rule means, and apparently the surveyors working for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are no different.
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If your institution is the lead story on the evening news, chances are good that it wont be for all the right reasons. Rather, youll find that the risk management department is suddenly faced with the challenge of saving the institutions reputation by saying the right thing in the right way.
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Hospital security often suffers from complacency and poorly defined roles for the security staff, says a specialist who helps health care providers improve their programs. One of the best ways to improve your security is to make sure your officers arent misused as impromptu assistants for all manner of scut work, he says.
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In addition to concentrating on the five conditions that lead to most ED malpractice claims, there are specific strategies you can employ to reduce the overall liability risk in that department, says Andrew S. Kaufman, JD, a partner with Kaufman, Borgeest & Ryan in New York City.
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Risk managers often look at the emergency department as a little like a container of potato salad left out in the sun. Its a Petri dish for all the terrible things that can happen in your hospital, says one expert. That attitude has some basis in fact, she says, but there are specific actions you can take to reduce the risk.
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Hospital-based medication, surgical and diagnostic errors are of concern to most Americans, according to the results of a new Harris Interactive poll of 2,847 U.S. adults.
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The number of medical errors per year may be twice as high as previously estimated, according to a new report.
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Incidents of perinatal death or permanent disability have declined steadily in recent years, but the tragedy still occurs too often, reports the Joint Commission. JCAHOs most recent Sentinel Event Alert addresses this issue with recommendations for lowering the risk even further.
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A Denver hospital is facing strong criticism and threats of a lawsuit after emergency department staff photographed an unconscious patients genitals and left the photo on the mans digital camera.
