A retained clamp is a never event

This is from Business Insurance, October 20, 2009.

According to the 10th annual Hospital Professional Liability and Physician Liability Benchmark Analysis, the number of hospital professional liability claims is increasing and is expected to increase by 1% per year. The study, released by Aon Corp. and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, both based in Chicago, polled more than 1,500 facilities to examine trends in claims and loss costs related to hospital and physician professional liability. The study attributes the rise in claims to the economic downturn, less public sympathy toward health care providers and a 2008 rule that prevents the Baltimore-based Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from reimbursing hospitals for certain errors known as “never events” because they are considered preventable and should never happen.

“Worsening economic conditions in 2008 may have influenced individuals to assert claims against hospital systems,” Erik Johnson, health care practice leader for Aon’s Actuarial and Analytics Practice and author of the analysis, said in a statement. The frequency of hospital liability claims had been decreasing for about a decade before this year, the study said. Claims severity, which includes indemnity and defense costs, is now projected to increase 4% per year. Hospital loss costs per occupied bed, which is a major part of the total cost of risk, is anticipated to rise 5% in 2010, according to the study.

One-quarter of all claims and about 24% of hospitals’ professional liability costs are connected to hospital-acquired conditions such as infections, medication errors, objects left in the body after surgery and pressure ulcers, the study said. The market for health care industry professional liability coverage likely will remain stable for the rest of the year, but pricing is expected to increase in 2010, AON said.

The AON study points out that ¼ of claims are related to “never events”. The never events defined by CMS are deemed outcomes that should not occur. The unwillingness of public and private payors to pay for what is defined as bad care leading to a bad outcome puts financial teeth behind efforts to improve patient safety and care. The definition of these outcomes clarifies concepts of liability. It becomes easy for the medical malpractice attorney to argue that there was a deviation from the standard of care when such an outcome occurs. Who could argue that operating on the wrong limb is acceptable or that leaving a clamp behind is okay? The AON study is important in that it shows the shifting trends. Those in hospitals who are reluctant to implement change, or take a strong position with recalcitrant staff who don’t want to change, need to know that the financial consequences of unsafe patient care will continue. The AON study confirms what we see in the nursing and medical malpractice world-seriously injured people wanting answers to questions and for the system to change so that someone else is not hurt.

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