A few days ago, an Asiana Airlines 777 crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport. The comments from the talking heads on TV as well as the general public were predictable: “How could an accident like this happen?” and “It’s a miracle that only two people out of the more than 300 aboard were killed” and “I’ll never feel safe flying again.” Relatively few noted that i ...
PRMS Blog
Physicians First
Just recently, the Illinois legislature set aside a psychologist prescribing bill after initially supporting it. (The Illinois Psychiatric Society’s president, Eldon Trame, MD, gives a nice summary of the whole process here.) What led me to explore what happened in Illinois was an article in the most recent issue of Psychiatric Times, “Why Psychiatrists Are Physicians First,” ...
Cyberbullying
I wanted to follow up on Martin’s blog from last week on bullying. In today’s digital age, a new form of bullying has arisen – cyberbullying. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, cyberbullying is defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices.” Cyberbullying has some unique characteristics, ...
'But that’s ancient history. . .'
Most weeks there are a few interesting news items that spark an idea for the weekly posting – but this week there’s a superabundance of material in a supplement to the Journal of Adolescent Health’s July edition. The supplement focuses on the manifold aspects of bullying on the health of the bullied, the bullying and those who witness it. Societal attitudes towards bullying hav ...
Register to attend a FREE risk management CME seminar and minimize your liability risk!
Let’s face it, the practice of psychiatry is one that is often quite challenging and mitigating the risks associated with this responsibility requires both a solid risk management plan and a working knowledge of the emerging trends within your specialty. Every day psychiatrists and other behavioral health professionals contact our risk management team to receive expert guidan ...
“Does HIPAA Help or Hinder Patient Care and Public Safety?”
The title of this post is shown in quotation marks because it’s exactly how the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House Committee on Labor and Commerce styled a hearing held on April 26, 2013. The witness statements and other material submitted to the Subcommittee can be found here. The chair of the subcommittee, Hon. Tim Murphy of the 18th District of Pe ...
Are you on the market?
Doctors in every specialty today are wrestling with a key question: What is the price of independent practice, and is the price worth it? Increasingly, their answer is “The price is too high; I’m ready to sell.” A recent article in Medical Economics (free registration required) highlighted the issue: Independent Physician: 6 steps you can take to remain independent – for now (A ...
Back from San Francisco
On behalf of the PRMS employees who represented PRMS during the APA Annual Meeting, I thank all of you who made it a success. Many of you visited our hospitality suite to ask questions about your coverage and to apply for new coverage. Our risk management seminar was well attended, and our expanded use of the audience response system (ARS) by attendees was a hit. The course and ...
We are headed to the APA Annual Meeting
PRMS will be at this year’s APA Annual Meeting, as it has been for every annual meeting since 1987. We truly do look forward to this meeting all year, because we know that we will see so many of our clients, both long-term and brand-new, face-to-face. We have posted our locations and agenda on our website, but in short, you can attend one of our CME risk management seminars on ...
Lessons Learned From Our Suicide Cases
As Martin pointed out in his blog last week, suicide is one of the two most common events leading to litigation against psychiatrists, the other being related to psychopharmacology. PRMS has since 1986, handled thousands of events, claims, and lawsuits involving a patient suicide or suicide attempt. From all of those cases, there are many lessons learned, including the follow ...
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