Healthcare Risk Management
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Huddles Produce Many Safety Improvements
Ronette Wiley, RN, MHSA, CPPS, vice president of performance improvement at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, NY, offers these examples of safety improvements resulting from the safety huddles implemented in 2015:
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Safety Huddles Produce Results If They Are Controlled and Monitored
Leaders at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, NY, worried in 2014 that its culture of safety could be improved, particularly the length of time it took to resolve known safety issues. When a review of data revealed a decline in staff reporting actual and near-miss events, the vice president for patient safety and performance improvement called for the development of a safety huddle policy.
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ED Doctor Waited Five Days to Enter Diagnosis
The sequence of events that led to August de los Reyes being paralyzed from the neck down at age 42 began innocuously with a simple fall from his bed at home in May 2013.
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In Unusual Settlement, Hospital Works with Plaintiff to Improve Safety
The malpractice case brought against Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, WA, by August de los Reyes involved a tragic outcome but, in other ways, seemed familiar until the parties reached an unusual settlement. In addition to paying $20 million, the hospital agreed to involve de los Reyes in ongoing safety improvement efforts in a way that goes beyond the patient safety councils found at some facilities.
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Nurse’s Actions Called ‘Obstetrical Violence’
In addition to the advertising fraud that led to a $16 million verdict against Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, AL, the physical interaction by the nurse is troubling, says Kathleen Juniper, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Buchalter Nemer in Los Angeles.
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Nurse Wrestles Mother into Position — Injury Results
Caroline Malatesta’s birth experience at Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, AL, was the opposite of what she expected. She chose the hospital because it promised a gentler birth experience but, instead, ended up injured from a nurse forcing her into a delivery position that she did not want.
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‘Bait and Switch’ Advertising Brings $16 Million Verdict
A recent $16 million verdict illustrates the risk faced by a hospital when its marketing promises too much and misleads patients. -
Failure to Recognize Post-surgery Problem Caused Internal Bleeding Yields $4.3M Verdict
In 2010, a 57-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital to undergo surgery to permanently stitch her stomach into the correct anatomical position after a hiatal hernia caused her stomach to partially invade her chest cavity.
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Excessive Prescriptions Result in $17.6M Award In Compensatory and Punitive Damages
In 2008, a 45-year-old man’s primary care physician began prescribing powerful and highly addictive pain pills for lower-back pain. The pain pills, known as opioids, are prescribed at alarming levels for millions of patients in the United States, which results in frequent addiction and serious side effects.
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Worker Fired in NFL Player Incident Sues Hospital
A secretary fired from Jackson Health System in Miami for accessing the medical record of New York Giants’ football player Jason Pierre-Paul is suing Miami-Dade County’s public hospital network. She claims she did not access the patient record and that the health system defamed and libeled her.