The Toll of Adverse Patient Outcomes on Healthcare Providers: Supporting Second Victims

Any approach for managing adverse outcomes in healthcare, including medical errors, should prioritize the patients who these situations affect. Patients are considered the “first victims” of adverse outcomes, and healthcare organizations and providers have a duty to provide them with truthful information, follow-up care, and emotional support.

The Patient Safety and Financial Implications of Disruptive Behavior

Disruptive behavior among healthcare providers and staff is widespread in healthcare settings, from large health systems to small healthcare practices. In a recent survey of healthcare professionals at an academic hospital in the United States, 63 percent of participants experienced unprofessional behavior at least once a month.¹

The negative consequences of disruptive behavior are far reaching. These behaviors can affect staff morale, focus/concentration, collaboration, communication, and information transfer.² Thus, from a broad perspective, disruptive behavior can have both patient safety and financial implications.

Improving Identification and Management of Sepsis in Outpatient Settings

Sepsis is a debilitating, life-threatening, and costly condition that poses a significant burden on patients and healthcare organizations. Although sepsis is a leading cause of death in the United States,¹ knowledge about the condition, early recognition, and management are a persistent challenge in healthcare.

Various factors may contribute to lack of sepsis awareness and delays in diagnosis. First, the terms and definitions associated with sepsis have changed over the years, and lack of standardization has led to multiple definitions in use at the same time. Additionally, identification criteria associated with the terminology and definitions also have varied.²

The Challenge of Difficult Patients: Risk Management Strategies for Handling Inappropriate Patient Behaviors

Difficult patients represent one of the most challenging situations that doctors and other healthcare professionals encounter. Dealing with these patients can be emotionally and mentally draining — as well as increasingly frustrating — for practitioners and their staff members.

Inappropriate patient behaviors also can compromise the provider–patient relationship, and patients who exhibit these behaviors might be at higher risk for misdiagnosis and poor outcomes.¹ Difficult patients also might be more likely to file lawsuits as a result of perceived unsatisfactory encounters.

Preventing Malnutrition and Dehydration in Senior Care Residents

Malnutrition and dehydration are long-standing resident safety issues in senior care facilities, even though regulations and standards are in place to address these problems. Definitions of malnutrition vary, as do statistics related to prevalence; however, estimates suggest that about 20 percent of nursing home residents are malnourished, and even more are at risk.¹

Numerous and complex factors contribute to malnutrition and dehydration in senior care residents, which is likely why these issues persist. Additionally, these conditions can cascade into a host of other problems, including infections, pressure injuries, falls, depression, weakness, confusion, prolonged hospital stays, and mortality.²

Ineffective Communication in Cardiology: Addressing a Persistent Risk Factor in Malpractice Claims

Providing coordinated and competent patient care involves precision at many points in the clinical process, particularly when sending and receiving information. Although information transfer seems like a fairly straightforward process, the complex and dynamic nature of healthcare presents numerous communication obstacles.

As a result of these obstacles, ineffective communication among healthcare professionals is one of the leading causes of medical errors and patient harm.¹ Further, analysis of malpractice claims shows that communication is a common contributing factor in claims across various specialties.²

Strategies for Disclosing an Unanticipated Outcome

Disclosing an unanticipated outcome to a patient and/or their family members can be daunting and stressful. Healthcare providers may worry about the possibility of litigation, damage to their reputations, workplace consequences, or even just upsetting patients/families.

In recent years, however, many professional associations and organizations have endorsed the concept of disclosure as part of patient-centered care, and studies show that communication-and-response techniques that include early disclosure may reduce malpractice suits and litigation costs.¹

10 Strategies for Communicating Effectively With Senior Care Residents

The question of how to communicate effectively has persisted in healthcare for years. Communication has long been recognized as a complex process that is prone to errors, oversights, and misunderstandings. In terms of patient safety and malpractice risk, the implications of inadequate or poor communication are substantial.

An analysis of almost 124,000 medical professional liability cases filed over a 10-year period shows that communication issues, which were found in all care settings, were one of the top contributing factors in malpractice claims.¹ Another analysis found that 37 percent of all high-severity cases involved a communication failure.²