Instructions

You have recently been promoted to Health Services Manager at Three Mountains Regional Hospital, a small hospital located in a mid-size city in the Midwest. Three Mountains is a general medical and surgical facility with 400 beds. Last year there were approximately 62,000 emergency visits and 15,000 admissions. More than 6,000 outpatient and 10,000 inpatient surgeries were performed.

After the first series of training, your CEO decided that employees would benefit from an online self-check after completing the training. You are tasked with developing a PowerPoint presentation with a list of questions that ask about liability protections for the physicians and the facility. Correct answers should be provided in the notes so that employees can check their responses.

Please prepare a PowerPoint presentation (or feel free to use other shareable Webware/software that you prefer) with questions that check employee understanding about the liability protections for physicians and the facility.

1. The PowerPoint presentation should be a minimum of 8 slides and a maximum of 12.
2. On each slide, provide a question that can be utilized to ascertain basic understanding. Open-ended questions are preferable.
3. Use the notes area on each slide to provide the answer with a thorough explanation of why that answer is correct.
4. Include a slide that provides links to 3-5 resources for employees who want more information.
5. Your final slide should be the reference page for sources cited in the Notes.

Legal Issues for Hospitals

Introduction

The aim of this presentation is to display a list of questions regarding the protection of physicians and the facility.

Every question is accompanied by the correct response(s) (as speaker notes) which can be used by the employees to check if their responses are correct.

Essentially, these questions are supposed to check employee understanding about the liability protections for physicians and the facility.

Question 1

How have been physicians and other health services providers affected by changes in medical care?

It is important to start by recognizing changes in health have generally led to better healthcare. Nevertheless, these changes have caused some problems regarding liability risks and clinical know-how. Technological advancements have led to liability risks which affect various health stakeholders. According to Keiffer (2015), most healthcare systems across the globe are constrained by costs. Increased costs have consequently reduced physicians as well as facilities reimbursement. Currently it is impossible to shift the economic burden of rising malpractice to the public (Keiffer, 2015). This factor has exerted pressure on hospitals increasing the risk of medical error.

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Question 2

How can an insurance carrier help a physician to improve their services and award their efforts to boost their efforts to improve outcomes?

Through their assessments, insurance carriers know physicians who are committed to working towards ensuring the safety of patients. For instance, they know the doctors who have excellent communication habits with patients and who follow up on labs. Insurance carriers encourage such physicians by labelling them as low risk and rewarding them with low insurance premiums (Keiffer, 2015).

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Question 3

What is the relationship between the medical liability crisis and what takes place in the emergency department?

Emergency departments care for the most severely ill and injured patients who are at greatest risk of dying. Therefore, emergency physicians can’t afford to miss anything. They are required by law to treat anyone who comes through the door, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. Very often they are working with little or no knowledge of the patient’s history. Lacking liability protections, emergency physicians are more likely to order extensive tests in order to rule out absolutely every life-threatening condition.

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Question 4

Describe how liability cost affects the practice of physicians.

The cost of liability protection differs from place to place. Nevertheless, the law requires that each employee working in healthcare to have access to liability insurance irrespective of the cost of premiums. The ever-growing cost of medical premiums is shifting the risk of errors to physicians because patients are in most cases unable to access quality care.

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Question 5

How are physicians protected by liability protection?

Through medical insurance, physicians are protected from malpractice. Despite the fact that insurance protects physicians from damages, it has been argued that it as well prevent them from trying innovations. At the same time, it heightens tensions between physicians and patients.

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Question 6

Describe one severity of errors facing health facilities and physicians.

Liability is usually attached to critical errors such as administering an overdose to a patient accidentally (Levy, Mareiniss & Iacovelli, 2012). As a result, affected patients may sue the relevant physician or health facility. Other examples of severity of errors may include errors during surgery and infections related to CLABSIs.

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Question 7

How are patients affected by the medical liability crisis?

States with litigious medical liability climates have a much harder time attracting and retaining an adequate physician workforce. Patients face physician shortages, delays in care and increased costs as a result. The most dangerous consequences are delays in medical care caused by physician shortage (Butler & Lostritto, 2015).

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Question 8

(Provide an 8th question with answer (in the Notes section) per the instructions.)

Additional Sources

(“Include a slide that provides links to 3-5 resources for employees who want more information”)

(This slide should include 3-5 resources NOT already used to create this presentation, which are relevant to the topic(s) and will provide additional information for employees.)

References

Butler, K. A., & Lostritto, M. D. (2015). Malpractice 101: strategies for defending your practice. The Journal of emergency medicine, 43(3), 516-520. (Include complete/accurate URL (link) for this source.)

Keiffer, M. R. (2015). Utilization of clinical practice guidelines: barriers and facilitators. Journal of Radiology Nursing, 34(1), 13-24. (Include complete/accurate URL (link) for this source.)

Levy, F., Mareiniss, D. P., & Iacovelli, C. (2012). The importance of a proper against-medical-advice (AMA) discharge: how signing out AMA may create significant liability protection for providers.  (Include complete/accurate URL (link) for this source.)

F	F	C	B	A
0	1	2	3	4
Not Submitted	No Pass	Competence	Proficiency	Mastery
Not Submitted	There are less than 8 PowerPoint slides and/or the questions included are significantly lacking in depth and detail.	PowerPoint presentation includes 8 questions, but a few of the questions lack depth and detail.	PowerPoint includes at least 8 questions, and all but a couple are comprehensive and detailed.	PowerPoint includes at least 8 quality questions, all of which are comprehensive and detailed.
Not Submitted	Answers in the Notes section are present but lack depth and detail. Supporting evidence is missing.	Answers in the Notes section are present but lack some depth and detail. Supporting evidence is weak.	Answers in the Notes section are present and are comprehensive and detailed. Some of supporting evidence is insufficient.	Answers in the Notes section are present and are comprehensive and detailed, along with robust supporting evidence.
Not Submitted	Resources on the resource slide fail to provide sufficient information on liability issues in healthcare.	Two resources on the resource slide fail to provide sufficient information on liability issues in healthcare.	One resource on the resource slide fails to provide sufficient information on liability issues in healthcare.	All resources on the resource slide provide sufficient information on liability issues in healthcare.
Not Submitted	Grammar and style detract from the organization and focus. Errors in punctuation and form (including style, as required) are present.	Grammar and style are mostly solid, and this largely complements the organization and focus. Very basic mastery of punctuation and form (including style, as required).	Grammar and style are solid, and this complements the organization and focus. Proper use of punctuation and form (including style, as required) with minimal errors.	Grammar and style are strong, and this complements the organization and focus. Proper use of punctuation and form (including style, as required). Evidence of good writing.

DELIVERABLE 2 – Grading Rubric

Please review your graded presentation. You are missing a slide which should contain the 8th question. All answers must be moved to the “notes” section for each slide. I provided feedback in slides 2 and 3. You are also missing the slide for additional resources. I inserted a slide and titled it accordingly, and provided feedback. Finally, be sure to include complete/accurate URLs for each source in your References slide (per APA). Otherwise, good job! I look forward to your re-submission.