• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Seven quick tips to identify risk potentials in your ASC

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, June 10, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Ambulatory Safety Monitor!

More than likely, there are problems in your private practice that you should address. These are problems that could expose you to liability risk or jeopardize patient safety.

If you are stumped about where to begin, consider auditing your facility, suggests Sandi Swanker, RN, MSN, CPHQ, a healthcare risk consultant with the Oswald Company in Cleveland. Here are seven quick tips to audit your facility and reduce liability risks:

• Check your medical equipment. Physicians who work in both hospitals and ambulatory settings might not think about equipment repair when they leave the hospital environment.
• Inspect equipment such as lasers or your electrocardiogram machine to make sure they are working properly. Look at your wiring, Swanker says. Are your wires frayed or damaged?
• Designate someone on your staff to check these items regularly, and consider creating a checklist to make sure that person inspects all equipment.
• Make sure exam rooms are clean and your waiting area is neat.
• Review staff habits to verify that they wash their hands after treating patients. Look at your orientation policies and make sure you have a system in place for employees to receive training on new pieces of equipment. Document this education, along with training staff receive when you hire them.
• Review your charts and make sure you are not exposing yourself to liability claims by not completing charts.
• Check that all documents are signed and dated, there is a diagnosis in the charts, and that you address the patient complaint during the visit.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Ambulatory Safety Monitor!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive