Healthcare Risk Management articles from March 2006

Healthcare Risk Management archives from March 2006

Perinatal safety improved with focus on high-risk factors and education.
March 1, 2006... Perinatal safety improved with focus on high-risk factors and education HCA sees dramatic drops in complications, liability after special effort A large hospital system has seen a 45% reduction in new obstetrical claims after...

Premium credits encourage hospitals to act.
March 1, 2006... Premium credits encourage hospitals to act When Hospital Corp. of America (HCA) in Nashville, TN, began its focus on obstetrical malpractice claims, the parent company required all of its member hospitals to start collecting extensive data...

VBAC risk results in strict criteria or total ban.(Vaginal birth after cesarean )
March 1, 2006... VBAC risk results in strict criteria or total ban Vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) was tied to a number of obstetrics claims in the Hospital Corp. of America (HCA) system, and inexperience in this procedure may have contributed to the...

Nurses OK'd to begin rolling on C-sections.
March 1, 2006... Nurses OK'd to begin rolling on C-sections The length of time it takes to begin an emergency cesarean is a well-known malpractice risk, and one hospital system has cut the percentage of emergency cesareans that take more than 30 minutes to...

Sexual misconduct requires firm stance.
March 1, 2006... Sexual misconduct requires firm stance Patients may misinterpret touching, comments Sexual misconduct or harassment of patients in health care can be a major liability risk and probably happens more than you think, say a risk manager...

Patients can misread gestures, think misconduct.
March 1, 2006... Patients can misread gestures, think misconduct While some allegations of sexual misconduct are valid, many are the result of a misunderstanding, says Deborah S. Stephens, RN, BSN, JD, CPHRM, risk manager at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids,...

Warning signs of sexual boundary violations.
March 1, 2006... Warning signs of sexual boundary violations Sexual boundary violations often are not overtly "wrong" until you put all the pieces together and see that the health care professional is no longer maintaining a professional distance from the...

Know steps to prevent and respond to allegations.
March 1, 2006... Know steps to prevent and respond to allegations Allegations of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously, and risk managers should have steps in place to both prevent them and respond appropriately, say Deborah S. Stephens, RN, BSN, JD,...

Hospital shows just culture can work.
March 1, 2006... Hospital shows just culture can work (Editor's note: This month's Healthcare Risk Management includes the third a three-part series on the "just-culture" approach to improving patient safety. Previous issues included stories on how the...

Many hospitals not close to IOM goals.
March 1, 2006... Many hospitals not close to IOM goals Nearly 9% of hospitals have no patient safety systems plan, according to recent research suggesting that risk managers need to reevaluate how they are striving to meet the Institute of Medicine safety...

JCAHO issues alert on meds at hand-off.
March 1, 2006... JCAHO issues alert on meds at hand-off The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has issued a new Sentinel Event Alert that urges special attention to the accuracy of medications given to patients as they transition...

CE Objectives/Questions.
March 1, 2006... CE Objectives After reading this issue of Healthcare Risk Management, the CE participant should be able to: *Describe legal, clinical, financial, and managerial issues pertinent to risk management in health care. *Explain how...

Legal Review and Commentary: Failure to detect soft-tissue mass obstruction leads to death, confidential pretrial settlement.
March 1, 2006... Legal Review and Commentary Failure to detect soft-tissue mass obstruction leads to death, confidential pretrial settlement By Blake Delaney, Buchanan Ingersoll PC, Tampa, FL News: After a woman began to experience difficulty...

Legal Review and Commentary: Delays in testing cause woman's death.
March 1, 2006... Legal Review and Commentary Delays in testing cause woman's death Cerebral aneurysm case yields $500,000 settlement News: A morbidly obese woman went to the emergency department (ED) complaining of a headache. Although medical...