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Emergency physicians who find themselves defendants do have resources — at their hospitals, from their professional liability carriers, from mental health professionals, and from specialty organizations.
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With the new question on healthcare equity, Leapfrog is encouraging hospitals to analyze their quality and safety data by race, ethnicity, or language.
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Healthcare quality researchers have demonstrated a single electronic health record may not be a complete source of relevant clinical information. The authors of a recent study suggested adding standards-based data from a health information exchange can improve quality of care.
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Hospitals might face quandaries over when they must report clinicians to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), but it is important to remember queries to the NPDB also are required. Failure to follow protocol could put the facility in peril.
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Cyberattacks have targeted 911 dispatchers, emergency medical services over the past year.
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Healthcare professionals can find themselves in a quandary when they want to report fraud or other concerns within their organizations because doing so could require disclosure of protected health information. That could seem like a HIPAA violation; fortunately, there is a whistleblower exception that covers this scenario.
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The Office for Civil Rights announced its 18th settlement of an enforcement action in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative on March 26.
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With nearly 20 settlements so far, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is showing its determination to protect patients’ rights to obtain their medical records from healthcare entities. OCR announced its Right of Access Initiative in 2019 and vowed to “vigorously enforce” patients’ right to access their medical records. OCR continues investigating allegations of improper delays that potentially violated the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s right of access requirements (45 C.F.R. § 164.524).
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This case provides two meaningful lessons about medical malpractice jury trials and related expert witness testimony.
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While it always is necessary to consult with local counsel (as damages analyses can vary by state), this case suggests an expansion of the traditional concept of how courts and experts calculate pain and suffering.
