Pulse: RMF Strategies Develops First-of-Its-Kind Surgical Malpractice Benchmarking Report
Pulse
RMF Strategies Develops First-of-Its-Kind Surgical Malpractice Benchmarking Report
Report provides healthcare organizations with actionable data and insights for enhanced patient safety.
RMF Strategies, leading an innovative national effort to use malpractice data to help healthcare organizations reduce medical errors and enhance patient safety, announced it has developed a first-of-its-kind surgical benchmarking report, “Annual Benchmarking Report: Malpractice Risks in Surgery.” This landmark analytical report, based on data from 3,300 surgery-related medical malpractice cases that closed from 2003 to 2008, is designed to provide hospitals nationwide with groundbreaking insights into areas of medical malpractice across the surgical spectrum so that hospital leadership, physicians, and surgical staff can identify areas of vulnerability and implement programs for improved patient safety.
“Our aim with this groundbreaking report, along with RMF Strategies’ many other education initiatives, is to provide today’s healthcare organizations with unique insights into where and why medical errors are occurring, delivering actionable information that enables them to initiate programs to reduce error and improve patient safety,” said Robert Hanscom, Vice President of RMF Strategies. “This first-of-its-kind report offers an entirely new lens into areas of greatest risk across the entire surgical timeline—from pre-op to intra-op to post-op—delivering a roadmap for areas of risk that need to be addressed. It is our goal that this report will serve as a catalyst for hospitals striving to enhance their patient safety profile.”
The report was derived from RMF Strategies’ Comparative Benchmarking System (CBS), which is the world’s largest and most comprehensive medical malpractice database, comprising data from more than 120,000 relevant cases. RMF Strategies will make this report available to its nationwide customer base of 400 hospitals and 40,000 physicians, as well as the greater community of healthcare organizations seeking to reduce medical errors and enhance patient safety.
Reveals Risks Across Surgical Spectrum; Identifies Most Frequent Errors
Among the report’s many findings is the fact that risks are inherent in all stages of the surgical process—from issues related to pre-operative decision making, to technical issues in the operating room, to those that occur post-operatively such as recovery management and communication. The report also highlights that errors leading surgery patients to allege malpractice are primarily due to narrow clinical judgment, poor technical performance, or miscommunication among team members. A variety of other valuable key findings, which will help hospitals pinpoint areas of greatest risk, are also included in the report.
Sharing Knowledge, Best Practices and Proven Solutions to Drive Patient Safety
RMF Strategies’ mission is to lead the charge in driving the industry’s patient safety agenda through the sharing of data, key learnings, and proven best practices/solutions. As a division of CRICO/RMF, the medical malpractice insurer for the Harvard medical institutions, RMF Strategies brings together prominent members of the medical community to collaborate on areas of medical error and develop solutions via symposiums, summits, and leadership councils. RMF Strategies offers a series of groundbreaking educational materials, including the report outlined in this document, films such as: “When Things Go Wrong: Voices of Patients and Families,” and “Healing the Healer,” and a variety of white papers. RMF Strategies also offers a suite of data-driven solutions that empower hospitals to identify risks, communicate across the organizations and create a results-oriented “call to action” that improves patient safety and reduces medical errors. For more information, visit www.rmfstrategies.com.