Page 12 - 2021 Risk Reduction Series - Communication Part One

SVMIC Risk Reduction Series: Communication

Breakdown of Communication Issues
for All Closed Claims including Hospital-Based Specialties

Physician/ Inadequate
Sta
Consent APN/Patient: 2%
23% 24%

Physician/ APN/Sta
: 2%
Physician
23% Physician/
Patient
19%
Physician/APN: 2%

It can be easily seen that the three segments relating to
communication with the patient combine to account for the

largest category of the risk issues (Inadequate Consent – 24
percent, APN and Patient – 2 percent, and Between Physician

and Patient – 19 percent = total 45 percent). While the graph
and chart reflect data for all specialties including hospital-

based, additional SVMIC data confirms that over half of all
communication failures happen in the physician’s office.

What can be done? As you will see in this course, if efforts are
undertaken in the office to improve routine systems such as

reporting of test results, following up on missed appointments,
or handling phone calls, communication between the provider

and the patient could be greatly improved and, thus, the number
of risk issues significantly reduced.

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