Risk Management on the PRMS Blog

People are attracted to medicine as a career for myriad reasons, but for most, a key motivator is a desire to help alleviate the suffering of others. At a time when the great suffering of the residents of northeast corridor is evident to all, many doctors are thinking about how they can help. Alas, the legal strictures of modern life force us to advise doctors to control the in ...

We invite you to join us October 22, 2012 in San Francisco, CA for our upcoming risk management seminar on Current Liability Issues in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Opportunities to Minimize Risk. ...

One of the unique benefits of purchasing professional liability insurance through PRMS is access to our extensive risk management services. We have always believed that providing information and resources that help psychiatrists provide better patient care is the best way to reduce exposure to liability. We like to highlight our expertise in risk management through the seminars ...

No one is more pleasantly surprised than I am to see that a number of you have become regular readers of this blog. Up to this point, we at PRMS have chosen the topic of each post, based largely on what we think you may be interested in reading about.  We would, however, like to hear from you. What do you want us to write about?   Please send us your questions.  You can email m ...

A guest blog by Holly Taylor, RN, BSN, JD, Risk Manager Have you heard the term e-iatrogenesis? It was first used in a 2007 article to describe patient harm caused at least in part by the application of health information technology (HIT).[1] HIT includes such things as computer physician order entry, clinical decision support systems, electronic health records (EHRs), etc. Evi ...

PRMS is located in Arlington VA, directly across the Potomac River from Washington DC.  On the evening of Friday, June 29, 2012, the “derecho” that formed in the Chicago area that morning hit the Washington metropolitan area with 80 mph winds and heavy rain.  For those of you lucky enough to have not been in an area hit by it, a derecho is a “string of storms that combined inte ...

It’s one week after Memorial Day, and summer is upon us. Soon, most students will be on vacation, your patients’ schedules may be disrupted because of their own vacation plans or their need to take care of their children, your staff will be asking for time off, and even you will want to find a few days to escape. Here are a few things to think about: 1.  Let’s start with your o ...

Several of us at PRMS were talking the other day about the number of violent incidents in just the past few weeks where the alleged perpetrator was said to be mentally ill. Perhaps it’s our professional sensitivity to news events involving the mentally ill, or it could be that we’re located in Virginia and the negligence trial against Virginia Tech, arising from the mass murder ...

Converting from paper to electronic health records may clear out some office clutter; however, doing so will not, on its own, improve patient care and safety. Electronic health records (EHRs) and other health information technology come with their own set of safety issues. For example, EHR systems that do not fit well within the workflow of your office or facility are of great ...

How’s your new exercise program going? Have you lost five pounds yet? Mine’s going nowhere and I’ve gained weight. More importantly, have you stuck to your resolution to improve your risk management skills? We make it easy for you.  We have short, focused papers on the issues that bedevil psychiatrists in their daily practices: – Do I have to release this patient’s record to he ...