Healthcare Risk Management
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Opioid Epidemic Brings Patient Safety Risks
The opioid addiction epidemic is introducing a new patient safety risk to healthcare facilities: the possibility of desperate and clever opioid addicts diverting medications from patients, which could leave the provider liable for any consequences.
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Feeding Tube in Lung Results in Death And $5 Million Verdict From Jury
In 2008, a hospitalized 88-year-old man was given a feeding tube by a first-year resident at a hospital. An X-ray was ordered to confirm the placement of the feeding tube, but the radiologist incorrectly read the X-ray.
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Unnecessary Heart Surgery With Pacemaker Results In $21.3 Million Verdict Against Hospital and Doctor
In 2010, a 39-year-old patient was told by a doctor that a catheterization showed a 60% blockage in an artery. He then was told that if he did not have a pacemaker implanted, he would die.
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Office of Civil Rights Gives Warning: Small Breaches Are Going To Be Investigated
The Office for Civil Rights announced recently that it will step up its investigations of HIPAA breaches affecting fewer than 500 people.
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Nurse Input Undervalued in Patient Safety
Nurses are an “underused resource” for improving patient safety, according to a recently published study.
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Court Says Reading Test Results Are Not ‘Treatment’
Reading test results does not constitute “treatment” as defined in medical malpractice law, and neither does transmitting the report, according to a Pennsylvania Superior Court common pleas judge.
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Workplace Bullying Brings $1.08 Million Verdict
A nurse in Dallas has been awarded $1.08 million for what a jury found was workplace bullying by her boss, a urologist. However, the plaintiff settled for $440,000 just before the verdict was announced.
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MACRA Would Grant Auditors HIPAA Access
A little-known feature of a proposed law adjusting physician reimbursement could create problems with HIPAA compliance, particularly if staff members are not informed.
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Protect Subpoenaed Data from Routine Deletions
Responding to a subpoena can require a risk manager’s oversight of many functions in a healthcare organization, and one area is easy to overlook: the scheduled deletions of data from the computer system that happen in nearly every hospital and health system.
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Safety Huddles Raise 1,500 Issues in One Year
During 2015, the safety huddles implemented at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, NY, has increased incident and event reporting by 51% over baseline from previous years, and the increased rate is continuing in 2016, says Ronette Wiley, RN, MHSA, CPPS, vice president of performance improvement at the hospital.