HEALTHCARE

Taxpayers spend about $70 billion a year on jails, prisons and other correctional facilities in the U.S. and currently there are 2.2 million inmates in our correctional system. When we look at each type of facility individually, we find that healthcare issues often vary by facility type but there are also common themes – a  Continue Reading »

Teleradiology and telemedicine have increasingly become more popular as more and more hospitals and independent imaging centers have begun to outsource their radiology work to independent practitioners. These practitioners operate from remote locations, with some based in the same city but many based in distant states or even overseas. Telemedicine has advantages for hospitals, doctors  Continue Reading »

In a recent blog post we discussed communication handoffs and gave an extreme example of how everything can go wrong.  Another dangerous and potentially costly area of concern is medication errors.  Here’s a scenario that illustrates how they can happen in a correctional healthcare setting and some potential solutions. Inmate Smith was a 32-year-old male  Continue Reading »

Are you a good communicator? I think most of us would say that we are pretty decent, but could probably improve our communication skills. How does poor communication affect claims in correctional healthcare? Here’s an example and a few statistics. This is a true story. A 37 year old male was arrested and put in jail  Continue Reading »

This is the fourth entry in a series of blog posts covering all aspects of managing the media during a healthcare crisis. Being prepared to handle the media during a crisis is an essential aspect of successful management. In this series we have covered: The initial response and disaster planning. Crisis communications. Selecting and training  Continue Reading »

In this market, what I hear mostly from my retail agent clients is that the major decision factors for physicians buying malpractice insurance are price first, coverage second and claims handling a distant third or not even a consideration at all. We know this is not always the best option and in many cases, the  Continue Reading »

Here’s a possible claims scenario to consider – your correctional client has a suit where the inmate is filing a medical malpractice allegation as well as a civil rights violation for “deliberate indifference.” First you ask “What exactly is this deliberate indifference?  Are you telling me that I have to provide coverage for my clients  Continue Reading »

This is the third entry in a series of blog posts covering all aspects of managing the media during a healthcare crisis. Being prepared to handle the media during a crisis is an essential aspect of successful management. In this series we will cover: The initial response and disaster planning. Crisis communications. Selecting and training  Continue Reading »

If you are a physician working in the corrections field, you need to ask this question: “Does my insurance adequately cover me for all possible liability?” I get this question at a lot of conferences, and the answer is usually maybe. There are a lot of factors to consider when making sure you have adequate coverage, claims  Continue Reading »

This is the second entry in a series of blog posts covering all aspects of managing the media during a healthcare crisis. Being prepared to handle the media during a crisis is an essential aspect of successful management. In this series we will cover: The initial response and disaster planning. Crisis communications. Selecting and training  Continue Reading »