Medical practitioners often worry about malpractice cases. A single lawsuit can destroy your reputation and cost your practice a fortune. How do you prevent such a thing from happening? Many medical malpractice cases don’t stem from a desire for money or even ill will toward a medical practice. Instead, most patients simply want to understand what went wrong and protect future patients from suffering the same thing. By taking steps to improve communication and hire excellent employees, you can keep these problems from ever occurring. Learn more with these ways to prevent medical malpractice lawsuits.
Emphasize Informed Consent
Informed consent plays a key role in doctor-patient communication. Before starting any treatment, you must sit down with your patient and thoroughly discuss the care you intend to provide. Make sure your patient understands both the advantages and the risks of the planned treatment, as well as any alternative options for care. Give the patient time to consider their options, ask questions, and learn more about their situation. Once you’ve clearly and thoroughly discussed all this information, the patient should give signed consent to their care. While this may seem like a simple step, it goes a long way in educating patients and eliminating misunderstandings about conditions and care.
Hire and Train Carefully
Of course, one of the best ways to prevent medical malpractice lawsuits is to hire and maintain an excellent team of healthcare professionals. Your staff should possess excellent communication skills, compassionate bedside manner, and prestigious qualifications. How do you achieve this? It starts with the hiring process. While you should provide your employees with quality training, resources, and encouragement for continuous growth, none of those things will matter if you don’t hire reliable and certified professionals. Make sure your hiring process includes vital background checks for medical professionals, such as license verification and a federal exclusion search. You should also consider each candidate’s personality and soft skills before you hire them. When every hire fits your practice’s values and atmosphere, you create a team that delivers the highest quality care for every patient.
