Risk Mitigation | ObGyn Cloud

STATISTICS OF THE RISKS INHERENT TO OB/GYN PRACTICES

Obstetricians and gynecologists incur 5 times more medical malpractice claims against them than pediatricians and psychiatrists.

The greatest litigation risks involve cases of fetal distress, uterine rupture following a vaginal birth in a woman with a prior Cesarean section, shoulder dystocia, and breast cancer misdiagnosis.

According to Medscape’s 2017 Malpractice Report, more than 85% of Ob/Gyn’s have been named in a malpractice lawsuit. Your risk of a malpractice suit at some point in your career is high.

A lawsuit can be painful, time-consuming and embarrassing. It’s not uncommon for settlements to exceed $1 million. Even meritless claims can take years to resolve and cost the tens of thousands of dollars to defend. Obstetricians, as a specialty, has the second-highest liability insurance rates. On average, an Ob/Gyn spends nearly 15 percent of their career battling malpractice claims that are mostly fruitless or frivolous.

ObGyn-Cloud helps reduce medical errors and enhance patient safety, which can help reduce potential liability. The exclusive Order Tracking System includes a number of automated documentation and communication management capabilities that helps mitigate practice risk from surgeries, pregnancy and delivery complications.

The Surgical Workflow Queue helps you manage the beginning-to-end process for surgeries such as hysterectomies, LEEP procedures, Pelvic Laparoscopies and planned C-Sections. Facilitate and document key steps in the surgical process, from preoperative activities to postoperative follow-ups.

To improve patient communication, Ob/Gyn patients can be automatically contacted for annual visits, bone density screenings, mammograms and other women’s health screenings and procedures. Alerts and reminders are programmed in and can be modified to your practice preferences and clinical guidelines.

You determine the protocols and the system will automatically alert patients by phone, SMS or email.

Accurate and Up-to-Date Patient Education

Strengthen your physician-patient relationship

Linking patient educational material to diagnoses codes helps assure proper documentation and full patient disclosure.

For example, when you make a diagnosis or recommend a procedure, relevant education information is automatically emailed to your patient and queued for printing at the front desk.

Educational content for Ob/Gyn patients are tied to diagnosis codes so that patient education is seamlessly linked to your encounter note charting. Common pregnancy education topics are pre-populated by trimester so that you can easily document that the educational material was delivered.

Automatically providing information about material risks helps inform and protect patient health, while providing you with a proactive risk management routine.

Protect Yourself With Accurate Documentation

Communication throughout the beginning-to-end process for surgery, pregnancy and delivery complication is fully documented in the system. Disclosure and consent documentation is effectively charted for you and your patient’s protection.

Easily monitor the status of lab orders and follow ups to minimize potential errors. For example, patients requiring PAP smears and mammograms, can automatically receive follow up emails and phone calls. As with Health Maintenance Reminders, you determine the parameters – and the patient outreach occurs automatically.

While no EHR system can protect you and your practice from lawsuits, the right EHR can provide tools to help you fully document your work and provide proper patient disclosure. And that can make all the difference in defending yourself in a malpractice suit.