Occasional lawsuits are part of the costs of running a medical practice. However, you can reduce the number of suits your medical facility faces if you follow some steps.
Part of your role as the medical practice manager is to ensure your clients are satisfied with the services they receive. Periodic check-ins and proper goal setting are paramount for understanding how your medical practice performs. Failing to communicate with patients and care for their medical issues can negatively affect your business. Here are some recommendations on protecting your company against medical negligence lawsuits.
You’re running a medical practice in a society where people’s first inclination when they feel wronged is to sue. Mistakes can cost your business time and money, so it’s best to gain wisdom from others’ experiences.
Here is how you can reduce the number of suits your medical practice faces.
Foster good communication with your patients
Communication is a key problem in medical settings, and private medical facilities are no exception. Healthcare practitioners and medical staff often take a couple of minutes to answer patients’ questions and address their concerns. When this happens, the patients and their families walk away feeling as though they had all the necessary information. Still, later they understand that they lack crucial knowledge about their condition. If you’re a busy practitioner, you may feel that you don’t have enough time to talk to your patients. But if you approach the issue from a management perspective, you understand that it’s crucial.
It’s paramount to take the needed time to communicate with all patients and go through every step their treatment implies. Listen and answer their questions. Communicating with your patients builds trust and minimises the risk of a medical malpractice lawsuit. Good communication can be a win-win because the patient provides you with all the needed information to diagnose and treat them, and you offer them high-quality services that prevent them from feeling wronged and claiming compensation. Encourage your patients to speak up when they have a question and think something seems off.
Document everything
Most times, medical negligence claims come to the patient’s words against their doctor. If you maintain detailed documentation about medical cases, you can easily defend your business against claims. All medical documentation must be concise, clear, and free of subjective opinions. Ask your patients to sign the documentation to acknowledge that the problems and side effects associated with their medical conditions were brought to their attention. Ensure that your employees evaluate your patients’ health state objectively. Often, it’s simpler to go with the obvious diagnosis, but your goal is to treat patients properly.
Documentation can make or break a medical malpractice lawsuit when a solicitor becomes involved. Patients can receive assistance from companies specialised in medical malpractice like Medical Negligence Law when they consider they’re the victim of neglect. Ask your employees to document everything, including the tests they take and the subjects of conversation they have with patients and their family members. In case one of your patients sues your practice for medical negligence, you can use the documentation to show the judge how the conversations evolved.
Maintain thorough handbooks and medical records
Patient handbooks are useful in medical practices with several clients because they document treatments and medical procedures. You may think that this kind of resource is an unnecessary expense, but having policies in place to establish how you handle each case can reduce your business’ potential exposure to a medical negligence lawsuit. You can check sample policies online, but hire a specialist to create a handbook that complies with state laws and policies. Ideally, a medical negligence lawyer should design a manual.
A medical practice can leave countless opportunities for accidental breaches because of the high number of patients that visit daily. Ensure that your medical facility keeps printed medical records safe and out of the public view. Assign someone responsible for locking medical records every night. All medical facilities require protocols that track the security of your patients’ medical records at all steps. Ensuring patient confidentiality prevents HIPAA violations.
Don’t delay diagnosis
When patients visit your medical malpractice, they expect to identify their medical issue the first time around. People rarely realise how long it takes to perform all necessary medical tests. If their condition requires sending tests to a third-party lab, they can take days or weeks to return, while the patients wait for your diagnosis. You need an efficient procedure to obtain results promptly and inform your patients in a timely manner. When gone unconfirmed, conditions like cancer can spread and trigger a bad outcome. You need to make sure your medical practice has a system that gets the results to the patient to enable them to choose their treatment options as soon as possible.
Consult an objective party
It’s quite helpful to hire a third-party specialist that has the expertise and experience to evaluate your medical malpractice and identify issues. Risk management specialists have a complete set of skills that allow them to offer insights and advice on how to manage your medical practice to promote safety. They can also provide you with the necessary tools to boost your business performance, such as forms, checklists, procedures, and policies that improve risk management. Keep in mind that your patients’ safety is your priority, and you must do your best to care for them.
Healthcare practitioners always have plenty of work on their plates. They have to care for their patients while managing a practice, which can turn difficult and overwhelming. If you lack legal knowledge, you can fail to keep up with the legal aspects of running a medical practice. However, it’s essential to understand what instances can lead to a medical malpractice lawsuit. The above recommendations can help you avoid liability and lower the number of lawsuits your experience.
Focus on the areas outlined above and assess and prioritize your business; weaknesses.
