| The Doctor’s Advocate | Second Quarter 2008 |
Industry and Company News
SCPIE Acquisition Continues
We recently announced that we have a definitive agreement to acquire SCPIE Holdings, Inc., the third largest malpractice insurer in California.
We will keep you informed as we pursue this transaction to completion. To read about the key highlights and milestones of the acquisition, please visit our Press Room at www.thedoctors.com/news.
Continuing to Reward Loyalty and Dedication through the Tribute® Plan
We continue to reward our members for their loyalty to The Doctors Company and their dedication to patients. Through the end of the first quarter of this year, we have distributed Tribute Plan career awards to more than 250 qualifying members.
To learn more about the Tribute Plan or to check your personal balance, go to www.thedoctors.com/tribute.
Cleveland and Columbus Physician Advisory Boards Meet
To increase local physician representation and participation as we grow in Ohio, we’ve expanded our local physician meeting network to include boards in Cleveland and Columbus. Both boards held meetings during the first week of April.
The boards reviewed cases involving multispecialty issues, giving us a broad perspective from many medical specialties. To address similar issues from different specialty viewpoints, we asked an orthopedic surgeon in Columbus and an anesthesiologist in Cleveland to present the same case.
Participants left the meeting with a heightened understanding of how important it is for a consulting physician to communicate any concerns with the coordinating physician and that it is equally important for the coordinating physician to take charge and coordinate care.
Board members also watched a cardiac catheterization procedure and followed the issues facing the cardiologist. A defense attorney attending the meeting noted that the visual examples provided excellent insight and would assist him in presenting a case to a jury.
We are excited by the enthusiasm, insight, and commitment shown by our expanded Ohio boards, and we look forward to future meetings.
Second Annual Member Experience Survey
We are constantly looking for innovative ways to refine our member services and create a high degree of satisfaction. To help us learn the best ways to meet your needs and ensure that we continue to deliver superior services, we recently launched our second national Member Experience Survey.
Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey. We’ll share the results with you in a future issue of The Doctor’s Advocate.
Connecting with Patient Safety
We regularly update our Web site with new articles and features that can help you reduce risk and avoid claims.
In addition to content of interest to all physicians, our extensive library also includes specialty-specific articles that are clinically useful to anesthesiologists, dentists, emergency physicians, general surgeons, internists, neurosurgeons, obstetricians/gynecologists, oncologists, pathologists, plastic surgeons, primary care physicians, and psychiatrists.
Visit our library of general and specialty-specific articles at www.thedoctors.com/patientsafety.
The Doctor’s Advocate is published by The Doctors Company to advise and inform its members about loss prevention and insurance issues.
The guidelines suggested in this newsletter are not rules, do not constitute legal advice, and do not ensure a successful outcome. They attempt to define principles of practice for providing appropriate care. The principles are not inclusive of all proper methods of care nor exclusive of other methods reasonably directed at obtaining the same results.
The ultimate decision regarding the appropriateness of any treatment must be made by each health care provider in light of all circumstances prevailing in the individual situation and in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which the care is rendered.
The Doctor’s Advocate is published quarterly by Corporate Communications, The Doctors Company. Letters and articles, to be edited and published at the editor’s discretion, are welcome. The views expressed are those of the letter writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or official policy of The Doctors Company. Please sign your letters, and address them to the editor.
