Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Company (LAMMICO)

Hip Fracture: Enhancing Patient Recovery

About 340,000 Americans suffer hip fractures due to falls every year. For many elderly patients, a hip fracture signals the beginning of the end, a decline ending in death within the following year. In the past, hip fractures have been…

Delirium and the Elderly Hospitalized Patient

Delirium is common among elderly hospitalized patients. At home, the incidence is low, but once hospitalized, patient incidence increases to 14–24%, and in intensive-care even higher, 50-80%. Delirium is under-diagnosed and under-treated. In a 2017 study, clinicians failed to list…

Antibiotic Stewardship Strategies for Adult Outpatient Care

Drug-resistant superbugs are a fact – not fiction! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2 million people a year are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and over 23,000 of them die as a result. The CDC affirms…

EFM Case Study #17: Oxytocin Truths and Myths

Exogenous oxytocin (Pitocin) may be the most commonly used drug in obstetrics but it is not benign. Its use in clinical practice is riddled with myths, unsubstantiated by science, that perpetuate poor practice habits. Misuse, overuse, and sometimes abuse in…

EFM Case Study #16: Equipment Failure

Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US and technology failure is to blame 44% of the time. Perinatal clinicians are frequently unaware of the equipment limitations they use routinely. Non-invasive blood pressure machines, pulse oximeters,…

EFM Case Study #15: Critical Event Notification

The obstetric malpractice claim of “a delay in treatment of fetal distress” remains the number one factor In over 20% of claims from multiple PIAA resources. The key to avoiding delaying treatment to a fetus in distress is to recognize…

Malpractice Litigation: Managing the Stress

Receiving notice of a medical malpractice claim often comes as a shock to physicians. It ushers them into an adversarial and hostile legal environment. The stress can impair the physician’s health, family relationships, and ability to meet the professional obligations…

Radiology Diagnoses: The Effects of Cognitive and Systems Factors

As specialists who are closely involved in the process of diagnosing patients’ conditions (often serious ones), radiologists have a comparatively high malpractice liability risk, and the top allegation in claims against them is that they have made an error in…

Prescribing Controlled Substances Updated

According to the CDC, drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury deaths in the US, and this death rate more than doubled from 1999 to 2013. Abused drugs included opioid pain killers, stimulants, -and -depressants, and the majority…