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Company Shares Insight on Team Training and Claims Trends at Hospital Education Program
Program to Expand in 2010
“We’ve received terrific feedback on the program
over the past three years and we’re now planning on
expanding it to recognize the diversity of the
participants we have been drawing.”
— Cheryl Peaslee,
Assistant VP of Risk Management
Executives, VPMAs and quality assurance professionals from 15
Northern New England hospitals gathered for Medical Mutual’s
2009 Hospital Education Program on August 18, 2009 to learn
about the benefits and processes involved in interdisciplinary
team training in the hospital environment, as well as gain risk
management insight from a special presentation on emerging patterns
in hospital claims.
Representatives from 11 hospitals insured by Medical Mutual
and, notably, four hospitals currently self-insured or covered by
other carriers, took part in the morning program held at the
Woodlands Club in Falmouth, Maine.
Doug Salvador, MD, MPH, Associate Chief Medical Officer and
Patient Safety Officer of Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine
presented the team training portion of the seminar, which focused
on the structures, processes and behaviors necessary to implement
an interdisciplinary team training model in a hospital environment.
Salvador said with proper training, the team approach has proven to
be an effective means of preventing adverse events.
Fostering mutual respect among all members of the clinical
team and developing consistent, effective communications behaviors,
he said, are the central tenets of the collaborative model and
he outlined practical guidelines for implementing such strategies.
Attendees called the presentation “timely” and cited the value
of hearing local examples of successful process improvements
through team training and the collaborative model.
Rounding out the program was a presentation on recent trends
in hospital claims by Medical Mutual Assistant Vice President -
Claims, Mary Elizabeth Knox. Ms. Knox analyzed the Company’s
claims data for the past ten years and presented evidence that indicates
a possible waning of
claims related to vaginal
births after cesareans,
bariatric surgery and
retained sponges and other
surgical items. Other types
of claims such as medication
errors, patient falls,
myocardial infarctions in
emergency departments,
failure to diagnose cancer
and unrecognized postoperative
complications,
were previously identified
as trends which persist
today. Finally, she identified
a handful of claims
types that bear watching as potential trends, according to recent
data: anticoagulation, negligent hiring and credentialing, computer
access issues, telemedicine and electronic medical records.
Given the intense and focused energy of hospital clinicians and
administrators on a day-to-day basis, attendees said the trends data
proved invaluable in highlighting information they would not
normally be exposed to. As a practical matter, one attendee cited
the usefulness of the information saying, “We need to know the
emerging trends. This will be helpful to take back to my office
when identifying our case reports.”
Medical Mutual Assistant Vice President of Risk Management,
Cheryl Peaslee, commenting on the Hospital Education Program
said, “We’ve received terrific feedback on the program over the past
three years and we’re now planning on expanding it to recognize
the diversity of the participants we have been drawing. So next year
we’ll offer a Hospital Education Program specifically for hospital
VPs of Medical Affairs and Quality, Risk Management and Performance
Improvement personnel in the spring of 2010, as well as a
program for hospital CEOs and CFOs in the summer or fall.”
“It’s really a matter of practicing what we preach,” she said.
“The success of the series has been great, but we’re always looking to
improve. And by focusing presentations on narrower audiences from
within the hospital environment, we think it will be even better.”