Psychiatrists on the PRMS Blog

Starting or joining a private practice is an exciting time, but it can also be risky. An essential way to protect your professional reputation and reduce risk is to obtain comprehensive medical professional liability insurance. In this post I will address some important steps you can take to help create and maintain a successful practice. Build good relationships If you are ent ...

As a part of PRMS’ ongoing commitment to behavioral health, we invited James Bouknight, MD, PhD, in Charleston, SC, to be featured as one of our guest bloggers this month.  The growth in the geriatric population both in the United States and worldwide presents issues and opportunities for the medical community in general and psychiatry in particular. According to the National I ...

As a part of PRMS’ ongoing commitment to behavioral health we invited Dr. Chasity Torrence, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and a staff psychiatrist at the Mississippi State Hospital, to be featured as one of our guest bloggers this month. In 2016, Dr. Torrence received the PRMS Reside ...

Medscape recently published the results of its annual physician lifestyle report, consisting of responses from more than 15,800 physicians in 25 specialties. According to the respondents, psychiatrists are not reporting burnout, but are reporting biases. Here are some of the interesting results: *The most burned out specialty was critical care (55%), and the least burned out sp ...

Since my original post on physicians’ online marketing, I’ve received requests for more information on the topic. So here are my expanded thoughts – Websites Websites can be a great way to market your practice online.In terms of professional liability, the greater the interaction on a physician’s website, the greater the risk.A simple, non-interactive practice information webs ...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. While it is great to recognize and educate everyone on the issue of mental health, I want to take a moment to recognize and thank the psychiatrists and other mental health professionals for all they do under what can be very tough circumstances. My comments are focused on psychiatrists because my team of risk managers has the most interact ...

A few days ago, an Asiana Airlines 777 crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport.  The comments from the talking heads on TV as well as the general public were predictable: “How could an accident like this happen?” and “It’s a miracle that only two people out of the more than 300 aboard were killed” and “I’ll never feel safe flying again.”  Relatively few noted that i ...

Just recently, the Illinois legislature set aside a psychologist prescribing bill after initially supporting it.  (The Illinois Psychiatric Society’s president, Eldon Trame, MD, gives a nice summary of the whole process here.) What led me to explore what happened in Illinois was an article in the most recent issue of Psychiatric Times, “Why Psychiatrists Are Physicians First,” ...

Doctors in every specialty today are wrestling with a key question: What is the price of independent practice, and is the price worth it? Increasingly, their answer is “The price is too high; I’m ready to sell.” A recent article in Medical Economics (free registration required) highlighted the issue: Independent Physician: 6 steps you can take to remain independent – for now (A ...

As Martin pointed out in his blog last week, suicide is one of the two most common events leading to litigation against psychiatrists, the other being related to psychopharmacology.  PRMS has since 1986, handled thousands of events, claims, and lawsuits involving a patient suicide or suicide attempt.  From all of those cases, there are many lessons learned, including the follow ...