The Medical-Legal Aspects of Acute Care Medicine: A Resource for Clinicians, Administrators, and Risk Managers is a comprehensive resource intended to provide a state-of-the-art overview of complex ethical, regulatory, and legal issues of importance to clinical healthcare professionals in the area of acute care medicine; including, for example, physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and care managers. In addition, this book also covers key legal and regulatory issues relevant to non-clinicians, such as hospital and practice administrators; department heads, educators, and risk managers. This text reviews traditional and emerging areas of ethical and legal controversies in healthcare such as resuscitation; mass-casualty event response and triage; patient autonomy and shared decision-making; medical research and teaching; ethical and legal issues in the care of the mental health patient; and, medical record documentation and confidentiality. Furthermore, this volume includes chapters dedicated to critically important topics, such as team leadership, the team model of clinical care, drug and device regulation, professional negligence, clinical education, the law of corporations, tele-medicine and e-health, medical errors and the culture of safety, regulatory compliance, the regulation of clinical laboratories, the law of insurance, and a practical overview of claims management and billing. Authored by experts in the field, The Medical-Legal Aspects of Acute Care Medicine: A Resource for Clinicians, Administrators, and Risk Managers is a valuable resource for all clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals.

The US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies to conduct a workshop that would examine the interface of the medicolegal death investigation system and the criminal justice system. NIJ was particularly interested in a workshop in which speakers would highlight not only the status and needs of the medicolegal death investigation system as currently administered by medical examiners and coroners but also its potential to meet emerging issues facing contemporary society in America. Additionally, the workshop was to highlight priority areas for a potential IOM study on this topic. To achieve those goals, IOM constituted the Committee for the Workshop on the Medicolegal Death Investigation System, which developed a workshop that focused on the role of the medical examiner and coroner death investigation system and its promise for improving both the criminal justice system and the public health and health care systems, and their ability to respond to terrorist threats and events. Six panels were formed to highlight different aspects of the medicolegal death investigation system, including ways to improve it and expand it beyond its traditional response and meet growing demands and challenges. This report summarizes the Workshop presentations and discussions that followed them.

Back for a second edition, Current Surgical Guidelines has been fully updated to reflect changes in guidelines across the surgical sub-specialities since its first publication. Drawing together printed and digital guidelines from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), and relevant US guidelines, this book acts as a valuable complete and comprehensive reference for those embarking on their surgical training, revising for exams, or for senior staff as an aide-memoire. Guidelines have been distilled into summary tables, and topics are formulated to answer most real-life clinical practice questions with contemporary facts and figures, decision recommendations, and treatment options. New chapters on hernias, skin malignancies, trauma, and medicolegal practice have been added to increase fresh challenges facing the contemporary surgical trainee.

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

This book highlights minimum standards relating to the management of different conditions in the practice of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The editors explore clinical governance issues, common causes of as well as ways to avoid litigation. The UK is experiencing a dramatic increase in medico-legal claims. The 4 main reasons for litigation are: accountability, the need for an explanation, concern with standards of care and compensation. However the decision to take legal action is determined not only by the original injury, but failure to provide information, an explanation and an apology. Insensitive handling of an injury and poor communication after the original incident increases the risk of litigation and erodes the patient-doctor relationship. Doctors almost never deliberately cause harm to patients, however increasingly claims are being defended successfully. This book is invaluable to clinicians and lawyers alike and raises awareness of how to avoid facing clinical negligence claims in our day to day practice.

This book explains the need for clinicians to maintain quality medical notes and records and how to produce them and looks in a practical manner at the legal principles surrounding many aspects of the treatment of patients, including confidentiality, capacity and consent, and the processes set off when things go wrong.

Presents examples of successful and unsuccessful legal claims in obstetrics and gynaecology with best practice guidance to avoid litigation.

The definitive resource for advanced practice within nursing and the allied health professions—revised, expanded, and updated throughout. Advanced practice is an established and continuously evolving part of healthcare workforces around the world as a level of practice beyond initial registration. Advanced practitioners are equipped to improve health, prevent disease, and provide treatment and care for patients in a diverse range of settings. This comprehensively revised fourth edition emphasises the importance of practice in advanced healthcare, presenting a critical examination of advanced practice roles in nursing and allied health professions through a series of learning features designed to facilitate the development of vital knowledge and skills. Advanced Practice in Healthcare presents: International developments in advanced practice as a global response to the need to modernise services, reduce costs and increase access to healthcare services Country-specific examples of advanced practitioners’ roles in delivering patient care in diverse settings The impact of advanced practice in nursing and the allied health professions Controversial issues including prescribing, regulation and credentialing, and the interface with medical practice Ethical and legal dimensions of advanced practice The preparation of advanced practitioners Advanced Practice in Healthcare is an essential resource for all students, practitioners, managers and researchers of advanced practice in healthcare.