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The tort reform issue is gathering steam again, despite national statistics indicating claims and payments in malpractice lawsuits are decreasing. Although federal and state governments are debating the issue, major tort reform hasn't occurred.
By adopting critical pathways and closely adhering to nationally accepted guidelines, you can substantially reduce your risk of facing a malpractice lawsuit and increase your chances of winning if you are sued, experts say. Pathways introduced as evidence in your defense can serve as "expert testimony," establishing that you worked in accordance with an appropriate standard of care. To avoid any appearance that you breached the standard of care, make sure you document and justify any deviations from the clinical paths in place at your institution.
The Early Diagnosis Project was established in an effort to improve quality and reduce malpractice risk in managed care practice environments. The first project, which addressed breast cancer, utilized practice guidelines, patient handouts, and follow-up forms in an integrated attempt to improve the quality of care and reduce litigation involving "failure-to-diagnose" claims.
Because so many factors influence a patient's health, it's difficult to know with certainty that a nurse's error actually caused the negative outcome. In nursing malpractice cases, causation can be a successful defense strategy.
Better relations with the patient can be instrumental in preventing malpractice claims. Physicians must understand what they are risking by not dealing directly with their patients, by not admitting error, and by not discussing fees openly.
Attempts by plaintiffs to circumvent statutes of limitations in malpractice actions take a number of forms which health providers and their attorneys should be aware of. Careful attention must be paid to the manner in which a summons is delivered.
The physically, emotionally, or otherwise handicapped child or adult presents special problems to physicians, hospitals and health workers--especially in the early years. Poor medical practice and lack of communication expose hospitals and professionals to greater malpractice risks when dealing with these patients than encountered with average patients.
Although some may doubt that malpractice claims data are a useful quality assurance device, a recently released volume compiled by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners dispels much of this criticism, according to the author. The article details how the data were derived and suggests how they might be used in the hospital setting.
The importance of the hospital medical chart in a medical malpractice case is well known. This article gives hospitals and their medical records directors guidance on what should and should not appear in the patient's medical chart.
Once the therapeutic relationship is established, a client acquires certain rights and the social worker certain duties. If these duties are breached due to negligence, and the client is damaged in any way, the social worker may be financially liable, and this may lead to the cause of action called malpractice.
To weather the stormy malpractice environment that lies ahead, hospital medical staffs will need to cooperate more actively with risk management and quality assurance programs than they have in the past. One barrier to more active physician cooperation has been fear that the confidentiality of medical staff committee findings will be breached. This article describes how the California Medical Association and the California Hospital Association worked to promote an organized approach to quality assurance built around legislation that removes quality assurance data and records from legal discovery.
Increasingly, the courts are holding hospitals liable for medical malpractice, especially in cases involving either physician-hospital contractual arrangements or selection and review of hospital medical staff.
Although malpractice claims in pathology are relatively infrequent, the potential always exists. The author discusses some important areas in which pathologists could be held liable, and illustrates her points by citing some leading cases.
Frequent malpractice situations arise in the overlap between medical and psychiatry diagnosis in the E.R. Examples of positive risk management and risk prevention measures are described which will lead to improved patient care for psychiatric patients. Now is the time to take a preventive approach through a review of hospital policies and procedures in Psychiatry. This will lead to risk prevention and improved patient care.
The Florida Legislature recently adopted a medical liability tort reform package, a step toward what physicians hope is an eventual solution to the medical malpractice problem. In the August issue, Dr. Coleman chronicled the Florida Medical Association's efforts to pass a statewide constitutional amendment to accomplish similar reforms. Here, FMA's immediate past president tells how the previously unsuccessful efforts led to a promising legislative victory.
The malpractice insurance crisis of today is the second such crisis in recent history. This article traces the development and underlying causes of the insurance crises of the mid 1970s and mid 1980s. Possible solutions to this crisis are offered, including tort reform and better patient-physician relationships.
Malpractice litigation alleging failure to practice responsibly and competently against an increasing number of doctors in America cannot be viewed simply as a legal or insurance problem. It affects the doctor in a highly personal way and in most cases generates emotional and/or physical symptoms for at least a limited period during the process. Intellectual and emotional understanding of the nature of litigation is necessary not only within the medical community but also within the community at large because of its potential for long range negative effects on healthcare.
This article discusses requirements imposed under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 for reporting actions involving malpractice claims and disciplinary proceedings against physicians and other individual health care practitioners. The article also summarizes the implications of companion provisions of the Act which specify mandatory and permissive requirements for obtaining such information in credentialing and quality assurance activities involving those practitioners.