Health Equity

Sep 01, 2023
Thinking About How We Think: How Implicit Bias Creeps Into Diagnosis
David L. Feldman, MD, MBA, FACS
David Feldman, MD, MBA, FACS, investigates how implicit biases can contribute to malpractice claims and offers strategies to improve diagnostic safety, mitigate risks, and combat healthcare disparities.
From The Doctor’s Advocate

Aug 18, 2023
Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Patients: Frequently Asked Questions
Debra Kane Hill, MBA, RN, Senior Patient Safety Risk Manager, and Richard F. Cahill, JD, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, The Doctors Company
To help you understand LEP requirements, we have compiled a list of frequently asked questions with strategies to ensure compliance.

May 30, 2023
Americans with Disabilities Act: Frequently Asked Questions
Debra Kane Hill, MBA, RN, Senior Patient Safety Risk Manager, and Richard F. Cahill, JD, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, The Doctors Company
Practitioners can face steep penalties for failing to comply with federal mandates that protect individuals with disabilities.

May 11, 2023, Inside Medical Liability Online
Postpartum Malpractice Claims: Can We Understand Preventable Harms and Socioeconomic Factors?
Rates for maternal morbidity and mortality are higher in the U.S. than in any other developed country—and many of the harms suffered by patients are preventable. In a multifactorial study, David L. Feldman, MD, MBA, FACS, Chief Medical Officer, The Doctors Company and TDC Group; Jacqueline Ross, PhD, RN, CPAN, Coding Director, Department of Patient Safety and Risk Management, The Doctors Company, and Shelise Valentine, RNC, MSN, Director of Clinical Education, Healthcare Risk Advisors, part of TDC Group, investigated postpartum claims to develop clinical recommendations to decrease the risks of postpartum morbidity and mortality.

Apr 24, 2023
Childhood Obesity: Communication Strategies for Healthcare Practitioners
Patti L. Ellis, RN, CPHRM, Patient Safety Risk Manager II, The Doctors Company
Conversations about weight between healthcare professionals and pediatric patients and their parents can have profound, long-term effects on a child or adolescent.

Mar 21, 2023
Addressing Bias in Healthcare: Solutions for Racial and Ethnic Disparities
Many medical professionals have encountered explicit racial bias in healthcare and are committed to addressing it when they see it. However, implicit racial bias, which can linger below conscious awareness, is widespread, often unaccounted for, and just as dangerous, said physician leaders during a recent panel discussion hosted by TDC Group.

Feb 28, 2023
Improving Diagnostic Safety for Patients of Color
Diagnostic error is the number one cause of serious harm among medical errors that are followed by medical malpractice suits. BIPOC patients may be at greater risk of these harms.

Feb 07, 2023
An Unequal Burden: Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Maternal Health Outcomes
Because BIPOC patients bear the brunt of risks for maternal morbidity and mortality, improving maternal patient safety requires understanding the scope of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare.

Nov 30, 2022
Healthcare Inequities Post-Roe: Clinician Perspectives
Many states with abortion bans are also states with higher proportions of people of color, increasing the uneven impacts of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Nov 17, 2022
Telemedicine and Patient Care Access: Challenges in the Post-Roe Landscape
Telemedicine offers the potential both to bridge geographic gaps and to increase access to in-clinic appointments for pregnant patients. However, varying state laws and patient disparities continue to provide challenges for physicians.

Video Oct 12, 2022
What Not to Do: Telehealth Lessons Learned (Equity Considerations)
In this video, created in partnership with Candello, experts discuss how to anticipate and address barriers to telehealth access for patients, including varying levels of digital literacy and access to appropriate technology and adequate internet speeds.

Professional Education
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Healthcare
Diversity, equity, and inclusion of all patients can lead to better health outcomes in the community in which we work. Creating a culture of inclusion and understanding our own biases, will help us improve patient care. It is important to understand how we are the same and how we are different in language, education, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identify, sexual orientation, age, social class, physical ability, religion, political beliefs, and morals. Ensuring equity creates fair and just opportunities to receive and benefit from healthcare. In addition, deliberately including all peoples creates a welcoming and respectful environment for our patients. Providers may not be aware of how diversity, equity, and inclusion problems can hinder their care and relationships with patients. Some states are requiring all clinical professionals to have continuing education on cultural and linguistic competency and implicit bias.
0.5 credit

Feb 23, 2022
Cultural Diversity in Healthcare Poses Risks During COVID-19
Susan Shepard, MSN, RN, Senior Director, Patient Safety and Risk Management Education, The Doctors Company
In light of the pandemic, providers and healthcare systems must respond to factors that make racial and ethnic minority groups more vulnerable to getting sick and dying.

Feb 23, 2022
Pediatrics: Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Adverse Childhood Experiences
Marcie Ward, RN, Senior Clinical Consultant, Medical Advantage, and Patti L. Ellis, RN, CPHRM, Patient Safety Risk Manager II, The Doctors Company
The role of the pediatrician, which encompasses the management of a child’s physical, behavioral, and mental health, is critical in preventing and mitigating childhood adversity and trauma.

Aug 16, 2021
ADA Accessibility for Healthcare Websites: How Practices Can Avoid Suits and Attract Patients
Chad Anguilm, MBA, Vice President, In-Practice Technology Services, Medical Advantage, Part of TDC Group
More than 3,000 digital accessibility lawsuits were brought in 2020—a 23 percent increase over the prior year. Healthcare practices and organizations, like businesses in many other industries, may be sued by web users who allege that there are site-use access barriers for those with disabilities and impairments that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and various state laws. Those caught up in these lawsuits can pay millions of dollars and be bound by the settlement to make specific changes to their websites.

Video Jun 25, 2020
How Does AI Reflect Human Biases and Impact Inequalities?
Biases can emerge when coding and testing artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Eric Topol, MD, founder and director of The Scripps Research Translational Institute and author of “Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again,” addresses how we must deal with these biases to make sure the problem of inequalities are not worsened, but improved, with AI.

Dec 11, 2019
Cultural Diversity Creates Language Barriers: Reducing Claims with Multilingual Patients
Rich Cahill, JD, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, and Susan Shepard, MSN, RN, Senior Director, Patient Safety Education, The Doctors Company
Clear and unambiguous communication constitutes the key component of the physician-patient relationship. Proactively implementing office procedures to promote optimum communication reduces the risk of disputes.