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Was the Consult Effective? Ethicists Survey Requestors
If ethics programs really want to know how well they are doing, individuals who participated in consults are ideal sources of information. To obtain this valuable feedback, some ethics programs are using surveys.
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Bioethics Field Is Less Diverse, with Different Views, than the General Public
Bioethics is a growing and influential field, yet little is known about bioethicists themselves. “It is important to understand bioethicists’ backgrounds and views because these may shape policies and practices,” says Leah Pierson, PhD, an MD-PhD student at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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References Used to Support Ethics Recommendations Depend on the Ethicist
What references are ethics consultants actually using to support their recommendations? And are ethics consultants using the same references?
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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.
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HITECH Audits Return: OCR Promises Enforcement Changes for HIPAA
The Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) has reopened the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) audit program and will begin audits of HIPAA-regulated entities later in 2024. The audits will focus on the Security Rule, particularly the requirements for security risk analyses and risk management.
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Ohio Appellate Court Refuses New Trial for Patient Plaintiff with Errors in Record on Appeal
Recently, an appeals court in Ohio affirmed a verdict finding a defendant group of doctors not liable for medical malpractice in failing to detect a woman’s cancerous tumor. After the jury reached a verdict for the defendants, the plaintiff argued that her lawyer should have been allowed to impeach the defendant pathologist who she accused of failing to detect her cancerous growth.