Claim findings prompt training in fetal monitoring.(Risk Manager of the Year)

Business Insurance, April, 2005 by Lenckus, Dave

Byline: DAVE LENCKUS Even in an environment where process improvement is fostered but not dictated, some changes just have to be made. While reluctant to impose clinical practice changes on physicians, HCA Inc.'s risk and insurance department saw no choice but to impose a professional development requirement on the hospital organization's 4,800 obstetrics nurses.

But the requirement-two days of training on how to read fetal heart monitoring strips-was one that both nurses and physicians have come to appreciate, said James D. Hinton, vp-risk and insurance at Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA. In 2000 and 2001, risk management began to see that medical malpractice plaintiffs' attorneys were routinely building their cases on the ability of obstetrics nurses to...

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