Applying Human Factors Methods to Improve Healthcare Risk Management Tools

The Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) is a not-for-profit medical malpractice insurance reciprocal that has a vision of partnering to create the safest healthcare system. Each year, patients die from preventable patient safety incidents in Canada. A proactive focus on risk management and embedding safety into healthcare systems is key to improving patient safety. HIROC conducted semi-structured interviews to help identify usability areas of interest for two primary risk management tools: The Risk Assessment Checklist and the Risk Register. A total of 16 participants from HIROC Subscribers, all with experience in risk management, quality improvement or patient safety, volunteered to partake in the semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis of the data collected informed usability improvements. For the Risk Assessment Checklist, participants indicated that the tool is informative as it helps create risk management awareness across their organizations. Participants found the Risk Assessment Checklist interface easy to use and are pleased that submitting their self-assessments is a streamlined process. For the Risk Register, participants reported that the tool is simple and easy to use. Specifically, they find value in having an electronic system that keeps them organized and provides a way for them to track and trend their progress. Participants identified some usability concerns that the research team addressed with proposed design reflections informed by Jakob’s Ten Usability Heuristics (Nielsen, 1994).

Assessing The Impact Of Medical Malpractice Awards, Tort Reform, And Investment Returns Upon Medical Malpractice Insurance Premiums

<p>For most doctors, obtaining medical malpractice insurance coverage each year represents a significant expense. During the past three decades, researchers have developed several competing theories to explain changes in the cost of obtaining medical malpractice insurance in the United States. This article focuses on the relationship, on a nationwide basis, between medical malpractice awards, the presence of tort reform, investment returns by insurers, and the impact of each upon the cost of obtaining medical malpractice insurance. The results of a multivariate equation are then used to analyze the relative impacts of these competing theories.</p>

Good Business

This chapter examines the link between Emergency Medical Incorporated's financial success and the quality of hospital care it ultimately was able to provide. Emergency Medical Incorporated, one of the nation's largest contract management groups, held the contract for the emergency department at HolyCare Hospital. The company managed the scheduling, billing, and workflow of the emergency medicine physicians, who were technically “independent contractors” with the company. It also provided them with medical malpractice insurance and helped them minimize legal risk. The chapter considers the billing practices of HolyCare doctors and the effects of physicians' individualism on the quality of care at HolyCare. It shows that entrepreneurship was structured within larger organizations (from the physicians' group to the hospital itself) that also profited from doctors' profiteering.