Healthcare Risk Management – June 1, 2015
June 1, 2015
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EHRs emerging as leading threat to patient safety, but little oversight
Electronic health records pose significant threats to patient safety. Risk managers are encouraged to take the lead in identifying the threats and reducing patient harm.
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HRM honored in Jesse H. Neal Awards
Healthcare Risk Management was honored recently in The Jesse H. Neal Awards, sponsored by the Association of Business Information & Media Companies of The Software Industry and Information Association.
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TJC, medical societies warn of EHR safety issues
In a recent Sentinel Event Alert, The Joint Commission warned of how incorrect or miscommunicated information entered into health IT systems might result in adverse events.
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EHRs threaten safety in numerous ways
Plaintiffs’ attorneys are on the lookout for several malpractice theories that trace patient harm back to an electronic health record that was flawed in its design or used improperly by clinicians, says Marion Munley, JD, an attorney in Scranton, PA, who has briefed others in her field.
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Doctor’s experience with faulty EHR drives his passion for patient safety
Scot M. Silverstein, MD, is passionate about alerting the healthcare community to the patient safety risks posed by faulty electronic health records and the imperfect use of any EHR. That drive for patient safety was spurred largely by his own experience in trying to protect his mother when she entered a Pennsylvania hospital for treatment.
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Office of Inspector General tells healthcare boards to listen to their risk managers
Risk managers and compliance officers just received a nice boost from the OIG at the Department of Health and Human Services, which recently issued guidance aimed at the governing boards of healthcare entities.
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Halifax settlement still yielding lessons on Stark
The $85 million settlement last year by a Florida hospital accused of violating the Stark law continues to yield lessons, notably an aggressive approach from federal prosecutors to allegations of false claims.
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Whistleblower leads to $85 million settlement
The Stark law settlement announced involving Halifax Hospital Medical Center in Daytona Beach, FL, stemmed from a whistleblower complaint filed by the hospital’s compliance officer and physician services director, who will receive $20.8 million of the $85 million settlement.
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Wrong dose results in record CO med mal verdict
Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora has been ordered to pay $17.8 million for a medication error, the largest medical malpractice verdict in Colorado history.
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Wet floor isn’t malpractice — time limit doesn’t apply
Malpractice filing deadlines don’t apply to patients who slip on a wet floor. That was the message from the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana, CA, which recently reinstated a lawsuit by a woman who was injured in West Anaheim Medical Center while walking back to her bed from the bathroom.
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ED doctors most at risk for diagnosis-related claims
Emergency medicine physicians are more prone to be sued for diagnosis-related issues than many other specialists because they treat patients who are unknown to them and who have a broad range of clinical problems, according to a recent study.
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Patient safety improving, but still could be better
The overall quality of healthcare and patient safety are improving, particularly for hospital care and for measures that are being publicly reported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, according to the 2014 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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Sentinel events tied to cognitive failures in 2014
Cognitive failure was the root cause of most sentinel events in 2014, according to new statistics from The Joint Commission (TJC). The Joint Commission reviewed 764 sentinel events during 2014.
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Ignored symptoms of a pending stroke results in $6.3 million award for stroke victim
After experiencing symptoms of vertigo, the plaintiff went to the hospital and was advised to obtain an MRI. The MRI showed signs of small vessel ischemic disease, which the doctor believed to be normal for the plaintiff, as she was a woman in her 60s with high cholesterol.
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Jury gives $5.7 million verdict for failure to diagnose liver cancer
The patient, a 51-year-old woman, was concerned about enlarged lymph nodes and the possibility that she had lymphoma. She sought treatment at a local medical center in September 2007.