Healthcare Risk Management articles from May 2003

Healthcare Risk Management archives from May 2003

This is not a phantom pain: liability risk grows for poor pain management: provider sued after man dies in pain, CMS investigates fraud.
May 1, 2003... A California nursing home is being sued for elder abuse and investigated for Medicare fraud after a resident died in terrible pain, with his family charging that clinicians ignored his pleas for medication despite charting his severe pain. A...

SARS audio conference: learning from Canada.(severe acute respiratory syndrome)
May 1, 2003... Hospital clinicians in the United States are watching with grave concern as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)--a rapidly emerging infection with unclear treatment options--strikes the health care system of their Canadian colleagues....

With smallpox, don't over- or underreact.
May 1, 2003... Seven health care workers with a history of heart disease have died after being vaccinated for smallpox, leading the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta to add heart disease to the list of reasons to exclude...

Preventing falls takes planning. (Guest Column).(Column)
May 1, 2003... Patient falls continue to be one of the most common causes of hospital-related claims for damages. Although the severity of fall-related claims is typically not high, the frequency highlights a major patient safety concern and should make this...

$50 million investment to improve patient safety.(Sutter Health, Sacramento, California)
May 1, 2003... A California not-for-profit hospital is spending $50 million on new, advanced technology that promises fundamental changes in hospital ICU care and bedside medication delivery, all intended to improve patient safety. The huge outlay of funds is...

Bar codes may help avoid the most common errors.
May 1, 2003... The road has been paved for using bar codes on all medications to reduce errors, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing recently that is proposing a rule requiring bar codes on all medication packages, a mandate that some say...

CE questions.
May 1, 2003... If you have any questions about the CE program, please contact customer service at (800) 688-2421. 17. Identify the true statement regarding the lawsuit filed against two facilities and three physicians for failing to the treat the pain of...

HIPAA compliance: technology plus culture plus operations: train-the-trainer approach saved money on consultants.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)
May 1, 2003... For Baystate Health System, a $1 billion integrated health system operating in western Massachusetts, HIPAA compliance has been seen as more than a technology issue. It also is a major cultural and operational issue that has an impact on...

CMS issues HIPAA checklist for provider compliance: checklist addresses business associates.(United States. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a checklist to help health care providers who do business electronically and their business partners to comply with the administrative...

Payment processes could be changed: encryption requirements eliminated.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Medical Banking Project founder John Casillas says that one of the changes in the final HIPAA security rule eliminated any requirement to encrypt electronically transmitted protected health information, even over the Internet or other open...

Physician groups scared of HIPAA: small groups have few resources available.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)
May 1, 2003... San Francisco-area attorney Steven Fleisher, who is HIPAA consultant to the California Medical Association and provides compliance services to providers and employers, says that health care providers working in solo and small groups have the...

5 ways to comply with HIPAA oral privacy regs: consider simple design changes.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)
May 1, 2003... When an orthopedic resident was paged repeatedly to assess a patient with an open fracture of the forearm, he failed to respond. The resident was paged multiple times and took more than an hour to get to the emergency department (ED). When he...

URAC accreditation standards out for comment: standards to provide a guide for internal verification.(Utilization Review Accreditation Committee )
May 1, 2003... URAC has released a draft set of HIPAA Security Accreditation standards for public comment. Once the program is completed, it will enable health care organizations to display a commitment to information security and demonstrate that they have...

Time needed to document security compliance.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that the nearly four million covered entities that must comply with the final HIPAA security rule will spend 64.5 million hours documenting their compliance efforts. HHS included...

OCR pushes for voluntary compliance.(Office of Civil Rights)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) director Richard Campanelli says that voluntary compliance with the HIPAA medical privacy rule is the best way to protect health information. He also told a HIPAA...

Help available for employers.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has started a HIPAA Compliance Assistance Program to help employers and other covered entities comply with new privacy regulations. The program addresses many...

Without proper language interpretation, sight is lost in Oregon and a $350,000 verdict is reached.
May 1, 2003... News: A Mexican laborer injured himself on the job when a piece of metal entered his eye. He did not seek medical attention until the next day. The day after that, he was referred to an emergency department (ED), where the eye was finally...

Two trials determine negligence in baby case.
May 1, 2003... News: The mother of a premature infant who was placed in a hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) brought suit against the hospital and specifically against the NICU. The first trial resulted in a $2.4-million verdict against the NICU....