For folks who already are fairly HIPAA-savvy, the new HIPAA Basics fact sheet issued by CMS in May 2015 is probably WAY TOO basic, but the one strong point is a cheat sheet of resources on HIPAA together with links. We are including those links below: Are You A Covered Entity? Business Associate Contracts Business … Read more
A California court of appeals ruling that a Conditions of Admissions (COA)form is a binding financial contract has the unintended consequence of confirming previous CMS citations based on obtaining signature to the COA prior to completion of the Medical Screening Examination. The Nolte v. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center case ruled that a patient could not avoid … Read more
DRAPER, Utah – Paramedics in a Juab County ambulance became patients Friday after Utah Highway Patrol Troopers said the psychiatric patient they were transporting caused it to roll, according to media reports. State police were quoted as indicating that the patient somehow accessed the driver’s compartment and grabbed the steering wheel, causing the vehicle to … Read more
Don’t you get tired of seeing the same hospital, EMS, emergency department, and legal graphics on all of the articles and websites online? I know I sure do, and I hate having to search for pictures that I can legally use. So I had an idea — take a picture of your hospital, its Emergency … Read more
Martin Luther King Community Hospital opened its doors last week in the Watts area of Los Angeles on the same grounds as it deceased predecessor King/Harbor hospital, but with a much smaller capacity and hopes of a better fate. The original hospital served the area from 1972 until 2007 when the death of a patient … Read more
OSHA PRESS RELEASE: TAMPA, Fla. – After the horrific murder of a Florida health care worker in 2012, an administrative law judge affirmed in June that her employer failed to protect her from workplace violence. Judge Dennis Phillips of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission determined Integra Health Management – now operating as Integra … Read more
This AM a series of “unrelated incidents” (a/k/a coincidences) is rocking the country, but cheer up folks because the White House has announced that these are truly unrelated and none of them involve hostile activity. Please note that these are the same folks who promptly announced that Bengazi was a spontaneous reaction to a video. … Read more
Some risk managers and healthcare organizations have disaster plans for even the most exotic threat, while others have so few meaningful disaster plans that they are more appropriately labelled “Inconvenience plans”. Most folks who have news sources other than main stream media, however, are getting increasingly concerned about the deterioration in national and international situations … Read more
QUESTION: We are getting ready to switch from a paper handwritten log to an electronic log. My question is this … is there anything specific other than name, date, time, compliant and discharge disposition? ANSWER: CMS will want the discharge times also. Many state hospital regulations also have log requirements that must be incorporated. You … Read more
QUESTION I work on a behavioral health unit at an EMTALA hospital. When our unit is full the admission staff has been told it is our responsibility to find placement for patients that come into the emergency room. Is it legal for us to find placement for patients in the emergency room when we cannot … Read more