Medical Malpractice Best Practices

This is a relatively new topic and controversial because there is a lot on the line when it comes to protecting patient safety and possible repercussions. Medical Error Best Practice was pioneered at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky (Patient Safety Program) and places urgency on reporting to risk management  of an error.

According to the Veterans Health Administration handbook "The Patient Safety Program's goal is to prevent harm to patients. This is accomplished by taking steps in the way things are done so that the level of faith and trust in the VHA patient safety system is established and behaviors designed to prevent adverse events become a part of all employee behavior. NOTE: This is a never-ending process. In this way a "culture of safety" can be formed."

The principle of this practice is for the doctor who made the mistake  to admit guilt to the patient and when befitting, rectification is offered.

Chief Risk Officer Richard Botthman of the University of Mishigan Health System in Ann Arbor said the hospital put its program in action of uncovering error and payment for medical errors 10 years ago.

With the new arrangement in affect, the organization found this avenue resulted in "a decrease in new legal claims (including the number of new lawsuits per month), time to claim resolution and total liability costs" in 2007 compared with 1995 as outlined in a  study printed in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs website, VA's National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) was put into effect in 1999 to develop and nurture a culture of safety throughout the Veterans Health Administration.

The VA has a dedicated website to patient safety with many resources readily available to healthcare professionals. The National Center for Patient Safety