WK 1 -discussion: Health Law, Litigation & Managerial Legal Compliance
Part 1: Critical Analysis of the Law
Identify, cite the code, and briefly describe one health law found in the standard health care statutes document. For the health, law selected, evaluate the following.
Evaluate whether the law is federal or state, civil or criminal, public or private. How do you know?
Why is it important to know when a statute has been modified by administrative regulation, court decisions, or new ordinance? How can you find out about these changes?
What are the penalties associated with non-compliance with your law? Why would it be important to you and your organization to avoid these penalties? How could you comply with the law you described?
Evaluate the role of the health care administrator or health information technology administrator in legal compliance.
Why is your role important in preventing litigation and supporting legal compliance?
What tools are available for legal compliance? Name one compliance tool from the Week 12 Managerial Compliance Tools list and describe the tool. Evaluate how the tool would control this risk.
How can you take action to reduce legal risk? (Describe at least one executive action you could take and how you would use the tool you just described to limit legal liability.)
Part 2: Strategic Compliance with the Law
You are an administrator for Big City Hospital Inc., a large medical center. Your medical center has just received a Summons indicating that a Complaint has been filed in the state district court in your city claiming that Dr. Quick, Nurse Sleep, and your medical center were negligent during a recent surgery.
The claim is that the doctor left before the surgical count, the nurse didn’t notice a missing sponge during the count, and the patient now has an x-ray showing a sponge in the abdomen. The medical records do not reflect that a sponge count was even completed. Your state of Maryland has an arbitration process completed, and the lawsuit has started.
As part of the lawsuit, you receive a litigation hold letter requesting that all documents related to the case be preserved, including electronically stored information (ESI).
Why is it essential to preserve documents for litigation?
How would you do this? Describe three actions you would take to preserve documents (prevent destruction) for this lawsuit.
What would essential documents need to preserve because they relate to what happened?
When a case goes to court, good medical record documentation can make the difference in winning or losing a lawsuit.
How can medical record documentation limit or increase legal liability? What should a solid medical record include?
As a result of this lawsuit, what three actions would you take to improve medical record surgical care documentation, including adequate documentation of the sponge count?
