Hospital Peer Review = An Ounce of Prevention....

The old adage about an ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure is certainly the case when it comes to sending out suspect issues that have a potential for malpractice or liability litigation in the hospital environment. Why is this? Because while nobody wants to spend their resources defending themselves, the faster you can get to clarity on the root cause of a particular sentinel event in your hospital, the faster you can determine what the appropriate measures to take are in order to protect your hospital from litigation.

Those protective measures could include settling the case early through an offer to a potentially interested party to a lawsuit. It could also include sanctions against physicians or other staff who have behaved improperly, or taking a tougher stance in pre-litigation negotiations when you know that nothing was done wrong and that it can be proven in court that all procedures were followed and the physicians performance which is in question was correct.

Outsourcing cases to an external peer review organization or to an independent review organization can help your company to quickly get to clarity on what the best course of action is as it relates to defending your hospital; sanctioning, taking corrective action inside with your staff, or settling. If you're a risk management professional and you haven't adopted peer review as part of your best practices for your quality management systems, talk to your colleagues, go to industry conferences, and listen to how external peer review is rapidly being adopted or is the best kept secret and best practice of many leading hospitals and hospital groups across the country.