The Doctors Company has joined a national effort to develop communication and resolution programs that hospitals can use to respond to unanticipated medical outcomes more effectively. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is supporting this effort by the Collaborative for Accountability after Medical Injury.
David B. Troxel, MD, medical director of The Doctors Company, the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, is serving on the Collaborative’s executive committee. Robin Diamond, MSN, JD, RN, chief patient safety officer at The Doctors Company, is assisting in developing a toolkit for hospitals to improve quality of care, lessen risks, and ensure timely and appropriate restitution when necessary.
The new toolkit, being tested this summer by Dignity Health and MedStar Health hospital systems, will bring together components from 20 projects funded by AHRQ grants into a single resource to help hospitals and healthcare systems:
- Provide timely communication to patients and families about risks and adverse events.
- Increase reporting of adverse events and facilitate improvement.
- Allow patients to be more quickly and fairly compensated.
- Reduce hospitals’ and carriers’ medical liability costs, increasing the percentage of costs that directly support patient care.
The Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) of the American Hospital Association is administering the contract for the project in partnership with the University of Illinois and other leading organizations.
“The Doctors Company has a long history of patient safety advocacy, so we are extremely pleased to be part of this project,” Ms. Diamond said. “The toolkit will build on several successful disclosure and resolution efforts, such as the Seven Pillars approach to harm that was funded by AHRQ. The Doctors Company Foundation has supported disclosure projects through grants to organizations that research these principles.”
About The Doctors Company
Founded by doctors for doctors in 1976, The Doctors Company (www.thedoctors.com) is relentlessly committed to advancing, protecting, and rewarding the practice of good medicine. The Doctors Company is the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, with 75,000 members and $4.3 billion in assets, and is rated A by A.M. Best Company and Fitch Ratings.
About The Premium Group
The Premium Group is licensed in all 50 states to sell medical malpractice insurance for physicians, physician groups, and hospitals. We can help hospitals and health systems lower the cost on medical malpractice insurance. We can also implement steps to lower the administrative burden and cost of implementing new medical malpractice insurance programs.
