Obstetric claims continue to be among the most catastrophic and costly of malpractice cases, so providers must protect themselves from becoming the deep pocket by enforcing policies that promote patient safety and are consistent with the standard of care, says an attorney and insurance company leader.
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Susan Chmieleski, APRN, JD, CPHRM, director of health care risk management with the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies in Simsbury, CT, offers these tips for keeping the plaintiffs hands out of the hospitals pockets.
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Larry Veltman, MD, chairman of the department obstetrics and gynecology at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR, and medical director of the healthcare professional liability division for the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, offers this list of the most common failures that lead to OB malpractice lawsuits.
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Risk managers facing claims of newborn brain injury have more support for what the physicians have probably been saying all along: The tragic outcome wasnt caused by anything that happened in your facility.
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Good Samaritan Hospital (GSH) in Vincennes, IN, uses this policy to establish a nonpunitive environment that encourages employees to report errors.
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If youre feeling bad because your organization has not yet adopted the Leapfrog Groups ambitious campaign to improve patient safety in hospitals, youre not alone.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced recently that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a final rule requiring bar codes on the labels of thousands of human drugs and biological products. The measure will help protect patients from preventable medication errors and reduce the cost of health care, he says.
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A lawsuit alleging elder abuse and neglect was settled recently for $1 million, and the plaintiffs insisted that there be no confidentiality clause.
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What does Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) say about false labor? If the patient is in false labor, it seems that EMTALA does not apply. But what is required to determine that it is indeed false labor and not true labor?
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Although a nursing home was aware of a male patients general disorientation and history of self-destructive behavior, the man opened a fifth-floor window and fell to the pavement.
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A nonpunitive policy on investigating errors yields better results, especially if you couple it with an amnesty period that promises employees can confess their mistakes without threat of punishment, says Elaine Shaw, director of quality resources at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, IN.
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