Risk Management on the PRMS Blog

It’s almost the start of a new year, and we can likely all agree that we are glad to say ‘goodbye’ to 2020 – a year that has, among so much else, upended healthcare, economies, and mental health.  Not only has the pandemic changed the way you practice psychiatry, but it also created new risks.  So as we begin a new year, our PRMS Risk Managers (or “Mayhem Managers” as they’ve b ...

World Patient Safety Day, established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in an effort to recognize patient safety as a global health priority, takes place annually on September 17, and PRMS Director of Risk Management, Donna Vanderpool, MBA, JD, recently shared her thoughts on the subject to members of the Florida Psychiatric Society. To further the efforts of mental health ...

In these uncertain times, the issues around telepsychiatry are more confusing than ever. To provide some answers to these uncertainties, we created a Telepsychiatry On-Demand Tutorial and are sharing associated resources, which you can access via this link (access the webinar under “Presentation”). While there continue to be many unknowns, this on-demand tutorial covers changes ...

Contemplating a return to the office? As we begin to reemerge after enforced state-wide lockdowns and closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important for psychiatrists to be prepared as practices open back up and federal and state regulatory exceptions and waivers go away. And while we do not know what exactly will happen next, our Risk Managers have created a he ...

In the July 14th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, there was a review article titled “State of Telehealth.” In it, Drs. Dorsey and Topol describe the following three current telemedicine trends: “The first is the transformation of the application of telehealth from increasing access to health care to providing convenience and eventually reducing cost. The second is ...

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has announced its latest and largest HIPAA settlement to date.  Advocate Health Care will pay a settlement amount of $5.55 million and adopt a corrective action plan to bring a lengthy OCR investigation to an end.  In 2013, the Illinois-based health system first notified OCR of the theft of four unencrypted desktop computers, collectively housin ...

Did you notice the recent Washington Post headline “The American Psychiatric Association issues a warning: No psychoanalyzing Donald Trump?” The article included many examples of psychologists and physicians (including one psychiatrist) who have never evaluated celebrities but have nonetheless commented on their mental health. No matter how tempting, especially given the someti ...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asserted jurisdiction and, after some back and forth, found liability on the part of a laboratory for failure to protect data on its computer networks, resulting in breach of patient confidentiality. The lab’s data security practices were found to be unfair, in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Here’s how the case unfolded: ...

Last week, Banner Health, one of the largest health systems in the country, posted notice of this year’s most substantial health care data breach.  A cyber attack affecting as many as 3.7 million patients, employees, beneficiaries, and customers was discovered almost a month after initially taking place on June 13, 2016.  The breach included patient names, addresses, and soci ...

A frequent call to our risk management helpline involves medical record retention. My standard advice of “retain as close to indefinitely as reasonably possible,” is typically met with resistance. I completely understand that paper records take up space, and it is expensive to securely store the records. However, the old saying is true – your record is your defense. One inquiri ...