Page 54 - Avoiding Surgical Mishaps Part 1

SVMIC Avoiding Surgical Mishaps: Dissecting the Risks

delays in diagnosis and/or treatment. A patient may fall through

the cracks if an abnormal test result is misplaced or filed away
without taking appropriate action or when a patient fails to keep

a recommended appointment.

The importance of handling lab and diagnostic test
results consistently across the practice cannot be

overemphasized. By adopting office-wide strategies for
tracking, the entire staff can work together as a cohesive unit

and successfully manage oversight of this important process.
The value of making the tracking system consistent across

the entire practice is even more evident on days when staff
absences require the employees to assist a provider with

whom they may not be familiar. If a single tracking system is
consistently used for all providers, the risk of losing important

tests or follow-ups is significantly reduced in those situations.

Since 50 percent of the risk issues which involved a breakdown

in systems or processes within surgical closed claims were
related to the handling of test results, let’s look at an example of

one of these claims.

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