Risk & Safety Exchange
The ELM Risk & Safety Exchange is a subscription-based program that provides continuing education to you via email. The case situation is delivered 24 times per year and provides up to 6 hours of AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™*. Twice a month, subscribers receive the Exchange email in their inbox to review. By simply clicking on the link in the email users are automatically directed to their ELM account to complete a short quiz and gain their CME certificate. The case studies may be stockpiled in the subscribers' account and completed in any order, at any time.
Target Audience: Physicians, both generalists and specialists, indirect applications for allied health and nursing
Goal: The goal of the program is to offer interesting and recent medical malpractice cases, analyzed and redacted by the ELM physician-attorneys to provide salient medical-legal lessons/take-aways for the learner, which then may be applied to practice.
The ELM Risk & Safety Exchange covers a broad range of specialties; each case is used to demonstrate errors that resulted in harm to patients and compensable damages owed by a provider or an organization. All ELM cases have been drawn from actual appellate court cases or those our physician-attorneys have worked on personally.
*ELM is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
ACA Changes that May Affect Malpractice Risk
April 11, 2014 By: Debra Beaulieu-Volk
As the Affordable Care Act shifts the dynamic of how physicians provide care to a higher volume of patients, experts predictchanges to the medical malpractice climate as well. A recent round table discussion at the Crittenden Medical Insurance Conference suggested five changes healthcare professionals can expect:
#1 - Standard of care changes. Panelists expressed concern that ACA-driven quality and standard measures will begin to alter the way "standard of care" plays out in the courtroom. For example, panelist Peggy Holm, a shareholder of Bonne Bridges Mueller O'Keefe & Nichols and manager of its Orange County, Calif. office, noted that "some plaintiff attorneys have attempted to use the approved guidelines from specialty boards as 'rules' for the standard of practice and patient safety, placing operational guidelines over proven clinical and outcomes-based research," according to an article from insurancenewsnet.
#2 - Vicarious liability. "The industry is very concerned that the ACA will potentially open up medical professionals to more claims based on vicarious liability," noted panelist Molly L. Farrell, vice president of operations, MGIS Underwriting Managers, Inc. "The need to manage more nonphysician providers to handle a large influx of new patients--many with untested expectations of the healthcare system--will present new undefined risks--we have to get ready and ensure we have programs to address the new healthcare reality."
#3 - Improper handoffs. Furthermore, while team-based care is intended to promote better clinician communication and coordination, bad handoffs in this environment could increase the risk of patient data falling through the cracks, according to insurance professionals.
#4 - Burnout. Higher patient volume could potentially overburden practitioners to the point they begin making medical errors, the article noted.
#5 - Deep pockets. As a result of the formation of accountable care organizations and other large networks, experts said it's those "deep pockets" that could be more vulnerable to lawsuits, rather than actual responsible parties and entities.
