Risk Mitigation Strategies for Physicians to Avoid a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit. Hospitalist practice is a major part of inpatient care, they also have a crucial role to play in intensive care units. The hospitalist works with patients and families on a daily basis, aiding in all stages of specialty care. As years pass by, this relatively new specialty has been seeing increasingly higher number of medical malpractice claims, which is likely due to the length and breadth of what the hospitalists do. It is hard to find a solution for complete risk elimination as there are too many complicated moving parts, however, there is a lot we can do as physicians, to reduce the risk of medical practice. Our aim is to help increase your awareness of the risk areas and be able to come up with risk mitigation strategies. In this blog post you will learn how to reduce risk of a medical malpractice lawsuit through 10 best risk mitigation strategies for physicians.
The information presented below has been gathered from two thoroughly performed research studies by The Doctors Company, and Cooperative of American Physicians. Together, these studies evaluated 484 claims against hospitalists that closed.
Risk Mitigation Strategies for Physicians is one of the 5 blog posts on how to avoid a medical malpractice lawsuit. In this series, the next blog posts discuss medical malpractice lawsuit – 6 most common medical malpractice claims, top 6 circumstances contributing to patient injury, 6 communication tips to reduce malpractice risk for physicians, along with the patient injury severity scale.
Lets not keep you waiting any longer. Here we go!
Physician’s Risk Management Practices to Minimize Medical Malpractice Claims | |
1 | Act Fast! Act Smart! Call emergent consults personally when needed! |
2 | Spinal Epidural Abscess, Pulmonary Embolism, Aortic Dissection–Watch out for these. |
3 | Smile at your nurses, and ask how you can help them! |
4 | Don’t just take off after your shift–Handoffs are vital. |
5 | Be a team member & team leader. Be in charge and assume responsibility. |
6 | Documentation saves you! It is the foundation of claims defence. |
7 | Spend time with patients, listen to them, and manage expectations. |
8 | Watch like a hawk–labs, radiology, consult notes, nursing notes, and etc. |
9 | Develop a sound discharge process! Don’t let things fall through the cracks. |
10 | Don’t be shy. Communication is the key. Overcome your inertia to make that phone call. |
(1) Act Fast! Act Smart! Call emergent consults personally when needed!
(2) Spinal Epidural Abscess, Pulmonary Embolism, Aortic Dissection–Watch out for these.
(3) Smile at your nurses, and ask how you can help them!
(4) Don’t just take off after your shift–Handoffs are vital.
(5) Be a team member & team leader. Be in charge and assume responsibility.
(6) Documentation saves you! It is the foundation of claims defence.
(7) Spend time with patients, listen to them, and manage expectations.
(8) Watch like a hawk–labs, radiology, consult notes, nursing notes, and etc.
(9) Develop a solid discharge process! Don’t let things fall through the cracks.
(10) Don’t be shy. Communication is the key. Overcome your inertia to make that phone call.
Although most of the content presented in this blog post seems pretty basic, the goal of this blog post is to highlight the importance of topics that often fall through the cracks, and eventually get physicians and patients in trouble. I hope that you picked up at least a few key points from this article, to include them in your practice. Practice thoroughly, keep your patient safe, and you stay safe!
Now that you learned about risk mitigation strategies for physicians, please also read the rest of the blog articles in the same series: Medical Malpractice Lawsuit – 6 Most Common Medical Malpractice Claims, Top 6 Circumstances Contributing to Patient Injury, 6 Communication Tips to Reduce Malpractice Risk for Physicians, along with the Patient Injury Severity Scale.
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Authored by Harsha Moole, M.D., MBBS
Hey there! I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. PhysicianEstate is my brain child and passion project. I run this platform to empower entrepreneurially motivated physicians to make financially educated investment decisions and discuss asset protection strategies. Lots of important but free content here and here! If you have any questions or if you are interested in partnering with me, let’s connect! hmoole@physicianestate.com
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