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Nursing Home Patients: Managing the Risks of Long Term Care

Nursing home patients today are older, sicker, and more frail than ever before. Multiple chronic conditions, reduced mobility, and cognition put them at risk for polypharmacy, falls, malnutrition, and pressure ulcers. Primary care physicians not based in the nursing home…

Managing Physician Stress, Preventing Burnout

Physicians are under more stress than ever before, much of it due to factors beyond their control. Laurie Drill-Mellum, an emergency medicine physician describes the forces bearing down on physicians, including litigation stress, and presents techniques for actively managing the…

Physician Health and Quality of Care: Who Heals the Healer?

Recent large-scale surveys of physicians show high numbers of respondents endorsing statements of stress and burnout. This video presentation by an emergency medicine physician examines the quantifiable effects of physician stress on the physician’s physiology and on the patient’s quality…

APRNs and the Collaborative Practice Agreement: What Physicians Need to Know

Physicians considering working with a Nurse Practitioner often ask, “What is a Collaborative Practice Agreement?”, “Will this increase my liability?” and “I’ve been asked to just sign off on the NP’s records; what do I do?” This monograph will answer…

Retinal Tears: Risk Issues in General Ophthalmology

Conditions of the retina including retinal tears are the conditions most commonly associated with medical malpractice claims against general ophthalmologists. This monograph will provide an overview of ophthalmology claims, a closed claim analysis of a case of retinal detachment, the…

Cardiothoracic Surgery Risk and Claims

The number of cardiothoracic (CT) surgeons is declining, and there is a projected shortage by 2035. At the same time, CT surgery continues to be a high-risk specialty for those practicing it. This activity looks at trends in CT surgery…

Risk and Claims in Plastic Surgery II: Patient Selection

Patient selection is an important issue, especially in cosmetic plastic surgery. Sound patient selection criteria and screening measures can help reduce the risk of claims related to unexpected outcomes and patient dissatisfaction. This monograph focuses on several special risk issues…

Plastic Surgery: Risk and Claims I

Risk in the field of plastic surgery has increased as the number of procedures has risen over the past few decades. Further complicating the field of plastic surgery is the volume of procedures that are done in ambulatory surgery centers…

Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Standard of Care

Twenty years ago, the AMA noted an alarming trend by physicians and hospitals: they were treating the terms “standard of care” and “clinical practice guidelines” virtually interchangeably, a trend that has only increased over time. In a video interview, cardiologist…

General Surgery Claims and Case Study

On one occasion, a surgeon may make a technical error in the operating room but no claim of medical malpractice follows. On another occasion, a technically perfect surgery may be followed by a claim of medical malpractice. Are there any…