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Applying Quality Methodologies to Improve Healthcare Briefings on Patient Safety

Dear Jim:

Due to what our broker calls a “soft market”, we saw a small increase when we just renewed our medical malpractice insurance. Continued premium increases have caused our doctors a great deal of stress, so a little relief would help. Could you tell me, what is happening to the various risk retention groups around the country? Many of our doctors joined them because of increasing rates. Do the doctors now go back to the conventional market? We have developed good relationships with many of the captives and often collaborate with them on incidents. What have you seen?

Abigail Marshall
Risk Manager
Brentwood, TN

Dear Abigail:

First, congratulations on developing collaborative relationships with the insurers of your independent, practicing medical staff. It can make a world of difference to have these claims.

But to answer your question: There is no doubt we are seeing the “soft market” insurance trend.

If this continues to happen you may see the market harden in the near future. It’s great that there is some premium relief for now. Hopefully, the market will dip responsibly so we simply do not end up on another rollercoaster ride.

As to the various risk retention groups and other types of captives that were created when insurance was difficult to obtain, there has not been much movement, from what I hear. Many organizations are forming their own captives and essentially self insuring the risk by being active in their own risk management program.

Particularly, it seems physicians have found a good home in properly organized and capitalized risk retention groups. The programs I am aware of have strong and often mandatory risk management protocols, they offer assistance with managing events, and they collect data and try to improve their own performance from a risk management standpoint each year. The doctors in these programs see the value particularly in this age of safety, quality and benchmarking.

Something interesting to note is that many additional conventional insurers have started to incorporate the same type of aggressive risk management that captives find important. Many would argue that this has been in place for years, and it may be true. However, some now include on-site office assessments, specialty specific assessment tools, and communication and service programs for staff and physicians. These types of aggressive programs certainly impact losses, but are also good for physicians and hospitals from an economic point of view. Most importantly, they are great for patient care.

As I mentioned above, there are some changes taking place in the environment that concern some of us looking at these issues from a global perspective. I think it’s safe to say that these aggressive risk management efforts are going to become more of a necessity in the future. With more publicity about medical errors and disclosure, or the lack thereof, these programs that teach and train about enhanced communication are critical.

Sincerely,
James W. Saxton, Esq.
Stevens& Lee
Lancaster, PA

P.S.
Have questions?
Send them to: jws@stevenslee.com