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These mistakes prove the devil is in the details. While most of us need to meet productivity standards, we also need to focus on quality and continue to perfect our medical coding skills. In our zest to reach and maintain the ever increasing and challenging productivity requirements, however, our quality and attention to the coding […]
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Despite there being a number of methods to correctly identify patients, wrong-patient procedures still occur with distressing frequency. Many if not all of these errors are preventable, yet they still came in third on this year’s sentinel event list.
Clinicians have until October 1 to review their 2017 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) final score and performance feedback and, if applicable, request a targeted review by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Immediate Action Required Eligible clinicians who participated in MIPS should review their MIPS final score and performance feedback, available on […]
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By Steven Andrews
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) measures the fee-for-service (FFS) improper payment rate through the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program. According to a 2017 CERT report, CMS had a 90.5 percent proper payment rate and a 9.5 percent improper payment rate for all claims submitted July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016. […]
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Physicians who accept responsibility for treatment decisions are accountable for their medical practice errors.
The truth is this: Most of us inherently trust doctors and physicians to keep our best interest in mind and to have the ability to safely help us. This trust may not always be founded, but it’s a deeply rooted part of our culture, and even if we get butterflies before a major operation, our logic still tells us that we’re going to come out fine on the other side.
When that isn’t the case, medical malpractice can really damage our psyche and give us a deep fear of medical attention of any kind. In many cases, that is just the beginning of what happens to our psyche.
Every year medical malpractice cases in America’s most advanced cities like New York, Chicago and California, causing at least 27,000 injuries and 7,000 deaths. Eight times as many patients are injured as ever file a claim, and 16 times as many suffer injuries as ever receive any compensation. At the highest level, the estimated number of medical injuries nationally is more than one million per year; approximately 85,000 malpractice suits are filed annually.
To deter against the medical malpractice cases and these frightening facts and figures from the most developed country of the world, we need to know about what medical malpractice is all about.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice cases occur when a healthcare provider fails to exercise that degree of care and skill required by a patient. If these standards are not followed, malpractice may have occurred. Medical malpractice can be generally defined as substandard treatment by a physician or other healthcare professional that directly results in physical or economic damages to the patient. “Substandard” care refers to care that violates normal medical practices.
Five Most Common and Most Frightening Effects of Medical Malpractice Cases
There are many different outcomes in medical malpractice cases, but here are some common after-effects of medical malpractice and a medical negligence.
1. Pain and Suffering
The foremost and obvious effect of having something go wrong in a simplest of medical treatment to the major operation is the pain and suffering of the injured.
2. Disability or Deformity
In many severe medical malpractice cases, a patient may end up disabled or deformed as a result of medical malpractice, causing a disadvantage for the rest of their life, affecting their ability to work and do pretty much anything else.
3. Emotional Stress and Mental Fatigue
One of the deepest extents of any medical malpractice case brings to a person in a situation of emotional stress caused by the negligence of a doctor or a medical practitioner. Even a temporary situation can result in shock and complete re-evaluation of what we can expect from the society around us.
4. Financial Miseries
Medical malpractice negligence happening can become a very expensive issue for the patient. Because it might not only increase the time of recovery from the scratch but also skyrocket the cost of medical attention and most importantly the financial loss due to unemployment.
5. Death
Almost 98,000 people die in hospitals annually each year due to medical malpractice cases. Whether from the wrong medication or something more sinister, these things do happen.
Two Basic Reasons of Increasing Medical Malpractice Cases
Medical inflation is the most important reason that has triggered the medical malpractice cases all around the world from the most developed countries to the countries of the third world. The first reason which halts me up is that the expenses are the biggest and the most predictable part of damages in the high severity cases that drive medical malpractice payments in individual cases to increase at a rate that is closer to the rate of medical inflation than to rate of inflation in the other areas.
Second reason which daunts out expressively is that the health-care sector economy is growing more rapidly than the economy as a whole. Malpractice payments can be expected to grow at about the same rate as the size of health-care sector of the economy and as fast as medical prices. This is in-fact what the research has proved in recent years.
Concluding Comments
• In principle, a negligence rule of liability against medical malpractice cases can correct these distortions and create incentives for efficient care and risk-taking, under certain conditions. These conditions include that courts set the standard of due care at the efficient level, that damages be optimally set, that providers be liable for failure to obtain informed consent, and that suits be brought and compensation awarded if and only if negligence occurs.
• Efficient deterrence incentives can, in theory, also be achieved by a rule of strict liability, whereby providers are liable for all injuries caused by medical care, regardless of negligence.
• Adjusting for medical inflation helps prevent us from mistaking in medical procedures and also a major decrease in medical malpractice cases can be expected.
• The second thing which can be done to cut the maximizing rate of medical malpractice cases is that to increase the liability, like if a doctor or medical practitioner malpractices, he or she should be arrested and punished to the maximum prison sentence. And if the felony has reached up to death of a patient then the medical practitioner must be treated as the criminal murderer‘s are treated in the judgment court because the human life is more precious than anything.
• Committing to implement these standards we can deter those medical practitioner or doctors who are ever been involved in such activities but can also retaliate aggressively against the increasing amount of medical negligence and medical malpractice cases.
Muhammad Saad Khan is a Research Analyst at Q2 Group. Q2 is specialized in medical credentialing, primary source verification, and medical license verification according to the standards of joint commission international. For more about medical malpractice cases, please visit http://medicallicenseverification.com
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The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is recommending Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Ill., refund $ 10.2 million in Medicare overpayments based on an audit sample of 120 inpatient and outpatient claims. Rush allegedly did not fully comply with Medicare billing requirements for 57 of the claims, resulting in overpayments of $ 814,150 for the audit period (2014-2015). The OIG […]
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In today’s modern world the health care industry has high technologies and sophisticated equipments that are somewhat dependent on human beings for their output. This shows just how well we have accepted this developments and technologies and the relevant roles they play in our health care industry. This are the human and computer technology relationships formed. Sometimes we even depend on machines to save our lives in HDU or ICU etc showing how complex our systems are. It is therefore very important for these systems to remain within the performance boundaries. These are all complex technologies and as a result medical errors might occur when some of these complex operations come into contact with systems failures.
The following are some of the recommendations for preventing medical errors:
Ensure that your doctors know the types of medicine you use or have been using. This is very important and for prescription purposes, the doctor can be able to know how to adjust your dosage, avoid making assumptions and also help in diagnosis. Follow all your prescriptions and use instructions and Proper storage and availability of medicine in hospitals also critical. You can avoid errors like allergies, failure to adjust dosages etc
Your are responsible for your own health, ensure that you can be able to communicate with the doctor, if you cannot speak for some reason ensure some close to you is available to help. It is important for both party’s doctors and patients to avoid third party verbal communications as much as they can.
Ensure all safety characteristics have been implemented before allowing a doctor any other medical practitioner to examine you. You can ask is their hands are clean, ensure that the razors, and other medical equipments have been sterilized or are new for prevention of other infectious diseases.
Only go to recognized hospitals or at least ensure that the doctor or the pharmacist is qualified to provide treatment. It is also important to avoid self treatment and prescriptions, most common contributor of overdose, addictions and other medical related errors.
Avoid overcrowded hospitals and always check on the hospitals or doctors precautionary messages, Nil by mouth, restricted entry etc. Never take anything for granted.
Complex conditions will sometimes require complex medical care require the use of complex systems. These systems are always protected against failure; you have the right to question procedure that you are not comfortable with, also when changing treatment, doctors etc it is always good to consider health safety characteristics.
For any health treatment or examination you should always have your own standards of expectations, this will help you be vigilant so that no unnoticed failures befall you. Your health is your responsibility. Prevention of medical errors can only be achieved if there is a combination of both the medical fraternity and the patients. This collaboration can act as a dual control that presents the necessary checks and balances required. Quality control should also be extended towards the interface which is usually the first point of contact between you and medical care. If both the medical practitioner and the patient know what is expected of them, then we would be discussing other important issues.
If you are interested in more interesting information, you should visit: Prevention of medical errors.
Medical errors can have far reaching diverse effects on the affected individuals and organization. These errors are never caused intentionally if so it would be considered a criminal offense; rather they occur during normal operational processes. In medical health care facilities there is usually a collection of different activities geared towards a specific outcome. This chain of activities can lead to medical errors and as you can imagine participation by several professionals or departments through correlated activities. It is there for very critical to implement preventative measures.
Quality management control is very important in preventing medical errors as it concentrates on these very cross functional teams, checking on the processes between each co- function for the sole purpose of mitigating any available risks. Quality management control acts like the centralizing aspect when it comes to adhering to certain operational specifications to the internal processes. It can be applied through four main areas of operation which are: Quality Planning, Quality Control, Quality Assurance & Quality Improvement. The four components play different roles which are: Understand the entire process and design process re-engineering models, put tools and processes improvement techniques, developing people skills and building strong performing teams and implementation of performance related benchmarks and tools of measurements. The tool increases performance in all areas hence reducing chances of medical errors occurring by improving accuracy, reporting errors and implementing mitigating factors.
Quantitative sciences can also be used to control and prevent medical related errors basically through applied science subjects. This is where analytical experiments, diagnosis, measurements etc is used to figure out definite and precise solutions. Here professionals and other sophisticated activities like the laboratories are put into use hence only qualified people are involved. Use of psychological science if important in the methodological practices area; the concepts of scientific studies are used to help prevent medical errors like diagnostic related, transfusion, infections etc this tool can be used not only to prevent medical error but also to find solutions. It is an effective tool because most of the professional psychologists and methodologies require you to have a license which restricts you to maintain professional levels subject to which you can be accountable for your actions and the penalty can be withdrawal your license.
A performance standard is another tool that can be used for the control and prevention of medical errors. By defining organizational goals and objectives it gives guidance to the direction where the organization is heading. The entire staff will understand what is expected of them; however this performance standards measures should be used as a critical factor in the planning process, and should be smart, specific and achievable. Smart goals enable one to relate and connect them with the organizational goals thus act as a guide, specific performance standards should relate directly to the operational area and processes required of an individual in their capacity and achievable goals should be the benchmark where you can peg compensation, promotions, bonuses etc This tool can be used to measure performance in all areas of operations and above all instill the required discipline.
For more information, please visit: prevention of medical errors.
Errors are inevitable in life. However, these can be avoided and prevented. Definitely, no one wants to experience the consequences of mistakes, most especially those that have significant implications such as medical errors.
Medical errors happen when anything that was planned does not progress as it should. These can happen anywhere in the health care system such as in clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, patients’ homes, doctors’ offices, and outpatient surgery centers. Moreover, these can involve diagnosis, laboratory reports, medicines, equipment, and even surgery. As such, these can practically happen to anyone, at anytime, and anywhere.
However, there are some precautionary measures that can be observed in order to prevent these from happening. Medical errors are not so easy to correct because these entail significant outcomes and results. In fact, these can even lead to injury and death. Thus, because of the degree of the seriousness of the consequences of medical discrepancies, purchasers of group health care, physicians, health care providers, government agencies, and medical practitioners are working together to ensure a safer health care system for everyone.
On the other hand, there are some instances when you are just on your own, and you need to protect yourself against medical discrepancies. Moreover, it is most important to be aware of these things in order to know how to appropriately react when confronted with such situations.
One of the most practical ways of protecting yourself from these discrepancies is by becoming an active member of your health care team. According to research, people who are involved in their health care are more likely to achieve better results. After all, the more involved you get, the more informed you become.
By being active in your health care team, you can interact with your doctors and health care providers constantly and keep records updated. It is important to make sure that your doctor knows about everything that you are taking; whether these are prescription medicines, dietary supplements, herbs, and vitamins. Moreover, it is also necessary to inform your doctor about allergies and adverse reactions that you may have on particular medicines. You also need to provide all health professionals that are involved all the necessary information about you.
One of the causes of medical errors sometimes is incorrect or incomplete information. Thus, in order to protect yourself from such, you should give the correct and complete health information that medical practitioners may need from you. It also pays to ask questions from time to time, most especially on the type of medicine that you are being prescribed of, or the type of medical procedure that you might be advised to undergo.
In addition, reliable and efficient medical supplies are also solutions to medical discrepancies. You may not totally agree to this, but most cases of inappropriate diagnosis are attributed to faulty medical equipment and devices. While these should be the lookout of medical practitioners too, it is also very important to ensure that equipment and apparatus are functioning properly, and are giving the correct information.
Basically, all these ways of protecting yourself against medical errors boil down to being aware and keeping others informed. With the proper information and communication, these can be minimized, and eventually eliminated.
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