August 2016

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 ...

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has announced its latest and largest HIPAA settlement to date.  Advocate Health Care will pay a settlement amount of $5.55 million and adopt a corrective action plan to bring a lengthy OCR investigation to an end.  In 2013, the Illinois-based health system first notified OCR of the theft of four unencrypted desktop computers, collectively housin ...

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 ...

Last week, Banner Health, one of the largest health systems in the country, posted notice of this year’s most substantial health care data breach.  A cyber attack affecting as many as 3.7 million patients, employees, beneficiaries, and customers was discovered almost a month after initially taking place on June 13, 2016.  The breach included patient names, addresses, and socia ...

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 ...