Lab, Test, Consult Management
Feb 27, 2024
COVID-19 and Patient Safety in the Medical and Dental Office
As COVID-19 persists across the spectrum of healthcare, medical and dental practices must remain mindful of new variants, infection rates, vaccines, protocols, and resources.
Jul 07, 2023
An Indiana Healthcare Provider Mailed Test Results to the Wrong Patient: Is it malpractice?
Nichole M. Pieters, MS, RN, CEN, CPHQ, CPPS, Patient Safety Risk Manager, The Doctors Company, part of TDC Group, provides strategies to enhance patient privacy.
May 30, 2023
The Importance of Clinical Health Information at the Point of Radiology Order
Having ready access to patients’ clinical information helps radiologists eliminate assumptions and apply their skills and expertise in rendering accurate interpretive reports.
May 22, 2023
Laboratory and Diagnostic Test Tracking in Ambulatory Practice
Managing patient test results in ambulatory practices can pose a significant challenge. Establishing a standardized workflow to track results is a successful strategy for avoiding missed or delayed diagnosis that can lead to patient injury.
Apr 26, 2023
Curbside Consultations: Patient Safety and Legal Risks
Informal consultations are tempting to busy healthcare practitioners because they are convenient and speedy, but these situations also include inherent liability risks for the consulting practitioner.
Oct 24, 2022
Why Medical Clearance Is Really a Preoperative Evaluation
The goals of the preoperative evaluation are to determine the patient's level of risk and to identify opportunities to mitigate it.
Professional Education
Test Tracking and Referrals: Strategies for Advanced Practice Clinicians
Tracking of tests and consults is critically important in preventing diagnostic errors and preventing patient harm. The risk factors triggering an alleged malpractice claim were primarily related to the breakdown in clinical systems for test result management. Failures of systems often prevent providers from making timely and accurate diagnoses. Testing failures included test performance issues, misinterpretation of studies, receipt, and transmittal problems. Follow-up failures included lack of physician follow-up with the patient, referral management, inadequate provider to provider communication and patient noncompliance.
Nov 19, 2021
Patient Safety Strategies for Oncology
Cancer care is complex and, at times, hazardous work that requires careful attention to maintain safety for both patients and providers. The strategies presented here are essential to enhancing safety and mitigating risk.
Professional Education
Pathologists and Surgeons Can Collaborate to Reduce Diagnostic Error
The Doctors Company has updated the claims filed against pathologists between the years 2015 and 2020. The information provides quantitative and qualitative data that a pathologist and surgeon would find meaningful in reducing diagnostic error. This program provides a breakdown of where patient injuries occur involving pathologists and surgeons and how collaboration between the two disciplines can improve patient outcomes.
Professional Education
The Need for Close Monitoring in Hyponatremia: Osmotic Demyelination Syndrome
In reviewing closed malpractice claims, The Doctors Company identified mismanagement of sodium levels during correction of severe hyponatremia as a serious problem that can result in catastrophic permanent neurological injury due to osmotic demyelination syndrome (also known as central pontine myelinolysis). This article highlights the importance of close monitoring of sodium levels during correction of severe hyponatremia, with a slow and controlled pace of sodium correction. Contributing factors discussed include clinical judgment with regard to rate of rise of sodium levels, patient monitoring, choice of practice setting, and communication between providers, especially at points of transition in care.
Video Apr 02, 2021
What Strategies Can Help Physicians Reduce Risk When Using Remote Patient Monitoring?
Chad Anguilm, vice president of In-practice Technology Services for Medical Advantage, part of the TDC Group of Companies, answers how physicians can reduce risk when using remote patient monitoring.
Video Mar 29, 2021
How Can Remote Patient Monitoring Create a Potential Malpractice Risk?
Chad Anguilm, vice president of In-practice Technology Services for Medical Advantage, part of the TDC Group of Companies, explores the potential risk involved in using remote patient monitoring.
Mar 17, 2021
The Pathology Report: Reducing Malpractice Risk
It is essential that the pathology report accurately document everything that a pathologist does with regard to evaluating and diagnosing a specimen—and it is particularly important to document the rationale for critical decision making.
Jan 19, 2021
Requests for Pathology Specimens: Medical and Legal Guidelines
Pathology specimens are irreplaceable materials that may become evidence in a malpractice claim. Knowing how to respond to requests will help you safeguard specimens and minimize your potential liability exposure.