Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Company (LAMMICO)

Second Stage Labor-Part II: Management & Risk Mitigation

The second stage of labor creates the greatest physiologic challenge to both mother and fetus. Oxygen delivery is reduced while oxygen consumption increases during this phase of labor. Certain interventions may help or hinder oxygenation. Using closed-glottis (Valsalva technique), coach-assisted…

Second Stage Labor-Part I: Risk Exposure Case Study

The second stage of labor creates the greatest physiologic challenge to both mother and fetus. Oxygen delivery is reduced while oxygen consumption increases during this phase of labor. Certain interventions may help or hinder oxygenation. Using closed-glottis (Valsalva technique), coach-assisted…

CT incidental Findings: What Do You Do With Them?

The technology of computed tomography is improving, yielding higher resolution images. As a result, radiologists are discovering increasingly more incidental findings (findings unrelated to the reasons for which the scan was ordered). Incidental findings can present radiologists with reporting conundrums….

Patients With Service Animals: Concerns and Risk Issues

Dogs and other animals can guide blind people through hazardous street intersections, provide psychiatric therapy to veterans suffering from PTSD, and alert diabetics of hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic events. Today, there is an increased use of service animals by people with…

Hacking Medical Devices: Modern Piracy

Over 10 million Americans rely on medical devices that may be vulnerable to cyberattacks. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the public’s reliance on these medical devices, in part because many patients are seeing their healthcare providers via telehealth. The…

Surgical Safety Checklists: Detecting Barriers, Maximizing Benefits

Many studies show using a surgical safety checklist improves surgical outcomes. In one survey of clinicians, over 90% of respondents said they would want a checklist used if they were undergoing surgery. However, researchers have recently identified poor checklist compliance…

Implicit Bias and Maternal Mortality

The United States has a high and still rising rate of maternal deaths, and black and indigenous women are dying from complications of childbirth at higher rates than white women. Although the problem of maternal mortality is complex, studies have…

Postpartum Hemorrhage #14: Toolkit

The maternal mortality rate has risen to unprecedented highs nationally and internationally and up to 80% are preventable. In the US, postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) accounts for 11% of maternal deaths and is the leading cause of death on the day…

Postpartum Hemorrhage #13: Quality & Safety

Severe maternal morbidity from postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is highly preventable. Pregnant women survive PPH in hospitals that make quality and safety a top priority. Adverse outcomes and risk exposure is higher in hospitals that have not established or maintained a…

Postpartum Hemorrhage #12: Debriefing

Cases of postpartum hemorrhage are traumatic events. Every PPH case will affect the patient, providers, hospital staff, and families in some way. Emotions often run high, and provider confidence can falter long after the event, mainly when severe morbidity or…