Risk Management

Prepare for the Worst

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By Anne Irving, MA, FACHE, CPHRM, DFASHRM

How to Survive a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit is a manual intended to demystify what one can expect when named as a defendant in a malpractice claim. Given the likelihood that a physician practicing in the U.S. will be sued at some point in his/her career – especially those in “high risk” specialties – this book should have broad appeal in the medical community.

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Patient Safety

Certain Types of Vena Cava Filters May Fracture and Fragment, Causing Potentially Life-Threatening Complications

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Two specific types of vena cava filters, devices used to prevent blood clots from reaching the lungs, appear to have evidence of fracturing inside the body, with some fractured fragments traveling to the heart and causing potentially life-threatening complications, according to a report posted online that will appear in the November 8 print issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

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Risk Management

Human Factors 101

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Human Factors 101

Affordances and Constraints Improve Reliability

Brian H. Fillipo, MD, MMM, FACP
Sherri Barnhill, RN, MA

In the first article in this series, we introduced concepts of human factors engineering (HFE) and their application to healthcare. We discussed how healthcare traditionally relies on the “weak aspects of cognition” (short term memory, attention to details, vigilance, multitasking etc.) and how that contributes to many of the errors experienced in healthcare.

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Patient Safety

Dangerous Bed Rails Live On

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By William A. Hyman, ScD, PE

The Canadian government agency Health Canada issued a reminder to hospitals
last fall on the risk of entrapment of patients in hospital beds. This
notice raises again what should by now be a well known hazard.

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