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This is not a phantom pain: Liability risk grows for poor pain management

A California nursing home is being sued for elder abuse and investigated for Medicare fraud after a resident died in terrible pain, with his family charging that clinicians ignored his pleas for medication despite charting his severe pain.

SARS audio conference: Learning from Canada

With smallpox, don’t over- or underreact

Seven health care workers with a history of heart disease have died after being vaccinated for smallpox, leading the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta to add heart disease to the list of reasons to exclude individuals.

Guest Column: Preventing falls takes planning

Patient falls continue to be one of the most common causes of hospital-related claims for damages. Although the severity of fall-related claims is typically not high, the frequency highlights a major patient safety concern and should make this problem a high priority.

$50 million investment to improve patient safety

A California not-for-profit hospital is spending $50 million on new, advanced technology that promises fundamental changes in hospital ICU care and bedside medication delivery, all intended to improve patient safety.

Bar codes may help avoid the most common errors

The road has been paved for using bar codes on all medications to reduce errors, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing recently that is proposing a rule requiring bar codes on all medication packages, a mandate that some say would significantly improve patient safety in the nations hospitals.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: HIPAA compliance: Technology plus culture plus operations

For Baystate Health System, a $1 billion integrated health system operating in western Massachusetts, HIPAA compliance has been seen as more than a technology issue. It also is a major cultural and operational issue that has an impact on systemwide operations and the way the system and its staff interact with patients.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: CMS issues HIPAA checklist for provider compliance

The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a checklist to help health care providers who do business electronically and their business partners to comply with the administrative simplification requirements of HIPAA.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Payment processes could be changed

Medical Banking Project founder John Casillas says that one of the changes in the final HIPAA security rule eliminated any requirement to encrypt electronically transmitted protected health information, even over the Internet or other open networks.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Physician groups scared of HIPAA

San Francisco-area attorney Steven Fleisher, who is HIPAA consultant to the California Medical Association and provides compliance services to providers and employers, says that health care providers working in solo and small groups have the fewest resources available to deal with HIPAA compliance and are experiencing fear and loathing on the HIPAA trail.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: 5 ways to comply with HIPAA oral privacy regs

You may wrongly believe that its impossible to give patients oral privacy in the hectic ED environment.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: URAC accreditation standards out for comment

URAC has released a draft set of HIPAA Security Accreditation standards for public comment. Once the program is completed, it will enable health care organizations to display a commitment to information security and demonstrate that they have adopted the necessary policies and procedures to ensure health information security.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: News Briefs

Time needed to document security compliance; OCR pushes for voluntary compliance; Help available for employers;

Legal Review & Commentary: Without proper language interpretation, sight is lost in Oregon and a $350,000 verdict is reached

A Mexican laborer injured himself on the job when a piece of metal entered his eye. He did not seek medical attention until the next day. The day after that, he was referred to an emergency department (ED), where the eye was finally appropriately treated. The surgery was performed too long after the injury occurred to save the laborers sight.

Legal Review & Commentary: Two trials determine negligence in baby case

The mother of a premature infant who was placed in a hospitals neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) brought suit against the hospital and specifically against the NICU. The first trial resulted in a $2.4-million verdict against the NICU.

Healthcare Risk Management – May 1, 2003

May 1, 2003