Healthcare Risk Management articles from January 2002

Healthcare Risk Management archives from January 2002

Future looks bleak as malpractice premiums continue upward spiral: insurers increasing rates to make up for past mistakes, rise in jury awards.
January 1, 2002... Malpractice insurance premiums have dramatically increased in the past year and the future looks just as bad, maybe worse. Insurance industry analysts are warning risk managers to brace for sharply increased insurance premiums in the next year...

Visit HRM, ED Legal Letter site.
January 1, 2002... As an added value for Hospital Risk Management subscribers, we now offer free on-line access to www.hrmnewsletter.com. The new site features current and back issues of HRM and ED Legal Letter, also from American Health Consultants. Also...

Blow your own horn to prove you're the best risk.
January 1, 2002... Risk managers can't stop the insurance industry from raising insurance premiums, but you can make sure you get the very lowest rates available. R. Stephen Trosty, JD, MA, director of risk management at American Physicians Assurance Corporation...

High premiums for docs to cut back on purchases.
January 1, 2002... High malpractice insurance premiums are having a chilling effect on health care, forcing doctors to cut back on necessary supplies and services, according to a survey of Pennsylvania physician practices. Spurred by skyrocketing malpractice...

Threats create a need to coordinate with providers.
January 1, 2002... As the nation's health care system continues to prepare for terrorist attacks, risk managers are finding new tasks that may pose unforeseen challenges. Risk management leaders caution, however, that you should not focus so much on those...

AHA guidelines urge protection of privacy.(American Hospital Association )
January 1, 2002... Much of the new American Hospital Association (AHA) guidelines on patient privacy are driven by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, which specifies the purposes for which information may and may not be...

$11 million settlement in brain damage case.
January 1, 2002... A Dallas court has approved an $11 million settlement between an Oklahoma woman and her son and the hospital and physician she accused of causing her son's severe brain damage during his birth. Baylor Medical Center at Garland paid $10.8...

Sentinel Event Alerts still useful, but not for scoring.
January 1, 2002... Risk managers can breathe a sigh of relief now that a much-criticized plan to use the Joint Commission's Sentinel Event Alerts for scoring is being abandoned, for now at least. But don't let down your guard entirely: the plan could be revived...

Joint Commission say some standards are ambiguous.
January 1, 2002... This may come as no surprise to risk managers, but the Joint Commission's Standard Review Task Force is reporting that its first assessments show some leadership standards are ambiguous and result in "overpreparation by organizations because of...

Medication errors related to poor communications.
January 1, 2002... The Joint Commission is warning that one of the major causes of medication errors is the ongoing use of potentially dangerous abbreviations and dose expressions. Risk managers should take action immediately to counter this pervasive problem,...

Joint Commission tip: live up to your job description.
January 1, 2002... The standard requiring staff members to "fulfill expectations of their job descriptions" is most likely to result in an ambulatory care provider receiving a Type I recommendation during an accreditation survey, according to a recent report from...

OIG may ease integrity agreement reviews.(Office of the Inspector General )
January 1, 2002... The head of the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is offering to ease up on some previously established provisions of the corporate integrity agreements (CIA) that hospitals may have abide by after being caught...

Anthrax outbreak forces closer focus on patient safety: facilities may have to revisit preparedness plans.
January 1, 2002... The recent anthrax bioterror attacks have been a rude awakening for health care professionals across the country; they now know that what they once considered a dim possibility now is a reality. And while the threat seems to have died down,...

HHS commits $50 million to better patient safety.(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
January 1, 2002... In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released $50 million to fund 94 new research grants, contracts, and other projects to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety. This initiative, the...

Leapfrog compliance pays off for hospitals.
January 1, 2002... Hospitals will begin to reap monetary rewards if they implement some specific patient safety initiatives backed by the Washington, DC-based patient safety improvement organization, The Leapfrog Group. A consortium of Fortune 500 companies...

NPSF taps Diamond as interim director.(National Patient Safety Foundation )
January 1, 2002... The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) in Chicago has appointed board member Louis H. Diamond, MB, ChB, FACE as interim director of programs. Diamond is medical director and vice president at The MEDSTAT Group, providing clinical...

Ring of fire: CDC plan to immunize around first smallpox cases has the devil in the details.
January 1, 2002... Should a bioterrorist strike with smallpox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) recently released response plan calls for investigators to rapidly immunize a "ring" around the first cases. The ring concept calls for...

Health workers, contacts priority for vaccination: others include lab personnel and waste disposal.
January 1, 2002... According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the following groups should be a high priority for smallpox vaccination should a bioterrorism release of the pathogen occur: 1. Face-to-face close contacts (less than or...

Smallpox or chickenpox? How to make the diagnosis: rash progression, location, will be different.
January 1, 2002... Smallpox or chickenpox? That clinical question has been long confined to the academic dustbin in the United States, where the last case of smallpox (variola) was diagnosed in 1949 in Texas. Smallpox has been vanquished yet is still feared;...

Failure to diagnose, treat endocarditis in a timely manner: confidential Florida settlement.
January 1, 2002... News: A primary care physician referred a young woman to a cardiologist for an echocardiogram. A follow-up transesophageal echocardiogram was canceled when the patient found she was pregnant. She was admitted to a hospital three times during...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2002... A story in the October 2001 Legal Review and Commentary about complications during the birth of twins stated that ABC Hospital of Union County, OH, was part of a $4.9 million settlement in the case. The hospital actually did not participate in...

Thumb injury ends in settlement for $7,500.
January 1, 2002... News: A hairdresser caught her thumb in a sliding glass door and drove herself to the emergency room. X-rays were taken, and no fracture was revealed. But when she returned to the hospital 16 days later, it was agreed that she had a displaced...