Malpractice: Primary & Secondary Prevention
From Arkansas Medical News, author: Cindy Sanders
Part art, part science delivered by imperfect humans and impacted by hundreds of variables from a tiny protein on a gene to an individual’s age and socioeconomic status – the practice of medicine is anything but predictable.
In a high-stakes field where outcomes aren’t guaranteed and emotions run extremely high, perhaps the question isn’t why a malpractice suit is ever filed … but why it doesn’t happen more often? Two experts with State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company (SVMIC) recently made time to speak with Medical News and share some insights to help minimize risk of litigation by instituting best practices on the front end, as well as steps to take in the event a claim is asserted.
Primary Prevention
“Based on the ongoing analysis of our internal claims for malpractice trends and risk issues, as well as review of national data such as the PIAA data sharing information, we focus on four primary areas when educating our policyholders on patient safety and risk mitigation – communication, documentation, systems/processes, and medication management,” explained Shelly Weatherly, JD, vice president of Risk Education and Evaluation Services for SVMIC.
“Decades of research tends to support the fact that 75-80 percent of malpractice claims arise out of communication breakdowns,” she continued. While patients and family member are naturally upset when faced with a bad outcome, Weatherly said they often express that what was more upsetting was the way the situation was handled.
Worried that anything said could be used against them, Weatherly noted the natural inclination is for physicians to run away from the situation and avoid it. Instead, she counseled, providers should “be running right towards it.” She added there are ways of expressing sympathy for a poor or unexpected outcome without admitting to, or being guilty of, malpractice.
“When there’s a bad outcome, the first disappointment is with the outcome, and the second one is how the physician or practitioner responds to the outcome,” Weatherly said. “They get over the disappointment of the first much more easily than they do the second one.”
She continued that it’s also okay to say ‘I don’t know how this happened,’ as long as it’s followed up with ‘but I’m going to investigate and get you some answers.’ Weatherly added, “That goes a long way to diffuse anger.”
Click to READ MORE including a section on “best practices”