PRMS Blog

For a second consecutive year, PRMS has partnered up with Kraftlove Inc., a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2015 to assist children who are impacted by illness.  Through kits assembled in Kraftlove boxes, children in local hospitals have the opportunity to use art projects as a mechanism to aid with the healing process. Kathi Heagerty and Leigh Baker closing up fini ...

In 1986, I was hired by the American Psychiatric Association in the Office of Member and Staff Benefits, continuing my path in the non-profit sector.  But soon after my employment began, the APA spun-off their insurance program into a for-profit company named Professional Risk Management Services, Inc.   This was a surprise and an adjustment indeed – after all, eyes often glaze ...

South Asians are a heterogeneous group of people that share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, geographic, and culinary threads. Their origins are in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. Asian Indians comprise the third largest Asian racial group in the United States. The South Asian community, along with the larger Asian community, is a highly tou ...

PRMS has a long history of supporting mental health organizations, initiatives and the mental health community.  Since the early 1990s, PRMS has endowed the prestigious Manfred S. Guttmacher Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to forensic psychiatry literature. The 2016 Guttmacher Award was presented on May 15 during the APA Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The recipien ...

As a part of PRMS’ partnership with NYCPS, Executive Director Meagan O’Toole is a featured author on the PRMS Blog this month! Do you know which of your colleagues went to medical school out-of-state? Who plays an instrument?  Or who speaks multiple languages? Could you spot the World Record holder in the room? You can learn the answers to all of the “important” questions while ...

In the July 14th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, there was a review article titled “State of Telehealth.” In it, Drs. Dorsey and Topol describe the following three current telemedicine trends: “The first is the transformation of the application of telehealth from increasing access to health care to providing convenience and eventually reducing cost. The second is ...

Psychiatry is one of the most rewarding fields in medicine, but psychiatrists face a myriad of liability risks, especially relating to issues such as telepsychiatry, suicidal patients, medication issues, use of social media, electronic health records and more. Unfortunately, risk management strategies related to these topics are not often formally addressed during residency tra ...

Did you notice the recent Washington Post headline “The American Psychiatric Association issues a warning: No psychoanalyzing Donald Trump?” The article included many examples of psychologists and physicians (including one psychiatrist) who have never evaluated celebrities but have nonetheless commented on their mental health. No matter how tempting, especially given the someti ...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asserted jurisdiction and, after some back and forth, found liability on the part of a laboratory for failure to protect data on its computer networks, resulting in breach of patient confidentiality. The lab’s data security practices were found to be unfair, in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Here’s how the case unfolded: A ...

A frequent call to our risk management helpline involves medical record retention. My standard advice of “retain as close to indefinitely as reasonably possible,” is typically met with resistance. I completely understand that paper records take up space, and it is expensive to securely store the records. However, the old saying is true – your record is your defense. One inquiri ...