Medical malpractice incidents are an ever-present concern in every healthcare provider’s career. Learning to manage risks will help protect you from malpractice claims and can result in better patient care.
What is medical malpractice?
Malpractice is defined as a failure of a medical professional to exercise care that another healthcare provider would exercise in similar circumstances. This is determined by medical guidelines, standards of care, expert witness testimony from other healthcare providers, and consensus opinions.
There are many reasons that malpractice incidents occur. Most often, it is not an issue of malice or intentional negligence. Today, Nurse Practitioners are treating more patients, returning more phone calls, and reviewing more charts than ever before. The healthcare system is overtaxed, and there is a severe shortage of providers, especially Nurse Practitioners. Errors in medical care are most often the results of a simple oversight. These occur when providers are stressed, too busy, and not given the resources they need to succeed.
Related: Malpractice Prevention: Everything an NP Needs to Know
What is the National Practitioner Data Bank?
Unfortunately, a simple mistake can lead to a malpractice action. Malpractice suits can be emotionally draining for Nurse Practitioners, and can present challenges in renewing licensure and securing certain employment opportunities.
The National Practitioner Data Bank is a database administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. It includes:
- Your professional licensure and memberships
- Where you have provider privileges
- Any payouts over $10,000 your medical malpractice insurance has made on your behalf
- Actions the Drug Enforcement Agency have ever taken against you
- Medicare/Medicaid exclusions from fraudulent claims
These payouts include legal costs if you must fight a malpractice suit, so it’s best to protect yourself against one in the first place.
The data bank exists to prevent Nurse Practitioners found of wrongdoing from moving across practice lines to set up another practice. However, it is important to remember that hospitals, long-term care facilities, and many other providers are required to query the data bank, both for new hires and existing employees. Your certifying board will also query it for your recertification, so malpractice suits can really jeopardize your licensure and career.
Related: Legal Implications of Practice that Every Nurse Practitioner Should Know
How Nurse Practitioners can mitigate malpractice risks
Protecting oneself against malpractice suits is an important part of every healthcare provider’s job, and it requires more than just trying to provide the best care possible. Some strategies for mitigating malpractice incidents include staying up to date on trending medical topics in your specialty, building collaborative work environments, and working with specialists.
Review textbooks and journals to keep yourself knowledgeable
Many malpractice cases happen early in a Nurse Practitioner’s career or late in the career. This tells us that starting Nurse Practitioners need to be more aware of their gaps in knowledge and work with mentors to fill them. It also tells us that more seasoned Nurse Practitioners must avoid complacency and use Continuing Education requirements effectively to stay up to date on new medical advancements.
Discuss cases and foster collaboration with colleagues
Collaborating with colleagues is another essential way to minimize the risk of malpractice incidents. Discussing cases with colleagues will help ensure you see the full picture and not miss anything important. Everyone has some gaps in knowledge or places they need help. Being humble and asking for a second opinion from a colleague can help you provide better care to patients with complex cases.
Collaborative work environments are not built overnight. It takes time to develop respect, teamwork, and a team growth mindset. Holding regular staff meetings or doing rounds where providers present specific cases and gather feedback from other clinicians is a great way to keep channels of communication open. Mentorship opportunities encourage teamwork and provide extra support to younger Nurse Practitioners with less clinical experience. Finally, team-building opportunities outside of work can help unite staff, create deeper bonds, and encourage cooperation.
Know when to refer patients
Controlled substances, especially pain management medications, are a poignant example of the need to collaborate. A trending issue in malpractice is providers being sued for contributing to a patient’s substance use disorder. When prescribing controlled substances for long-term use, it is essential to collaborate with specialists who can guide safe prescribing.
Both the FDA and the CDC have recommended that benzodiazepines and opioids not be prescribed together. If you are a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner who inherits a patient with such prescriptions, you can refer the patient to a pain management specialist. You do not need to be the one prescribing these medications. Collaboration with other healthcare providers will help the patient minimize substance abuse risks and help you avoid malpractice complaints.
And of course, medications non-withstanding, do not hesitate to refer patients to a higher level of care, whether a more experienced colleague, a specialty practice, or even the hospital when necessary.
Prioritize patient education
Teamwork doesn’t just mean working with other healthcare providers in your organization. Don’t forget to collaborate with your patients about their healthcare. Informed consent is an important part of patient care and malpractice risk mitigation. Informed consent requires Nurse Practitioners to discuss procedure risks and benefits, outline alternative treatment options including no treatment, assess patient understanding, and obtain voluntary consent.
Studies have shown that primary care physicians who had never been sued for malpractice tended to educate patients more thoroughly about what to expect from a procedure or treatment. Patients are less likely to sue when they have a positive opinion of their healthcare provider. If you prioritize your patient relationships and make sure to listen and answer questions, you will be better protected from malpractice claims.
How does malpractice risk mitigation result in better patient care?
The strategies Nurse Practitioners use to protect themselves from malpractice claims can improve patient experiences. Communicating more with patients and providing more patient education both improves your relationship with your patients and helps them feel better cared for.
Collaborating with colleagues can help Nurse Practitioners develop the right treatment strategies for patients and prevent life-threatening oversights. Finally, referrals to specialists can provide patients with the expert care they need. With all these strategies, Nurse Practitioners can simultaneously prevent malpractice incidents and give patients better experiences.
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