Doctors And Insurers Work Together To Improve Patient Safety

Patient safety is a major health-policy issue thatcredible information for use in risk management
affects every physician. Recent years have seen theprograms, which are aimed at educating doctors and
growth of a national movement-among doctors,minimizing the incidence of patient injury.
patients and even some doctors' medical liabilityPIAA member companies play a critical role in
insurance companies-to improve the healthcaremaximizing patient safety, through the risk
delivery system and reduce medical errors.management services they provide to the physicians
The Physician Insurers Association of America (PIAA)they insure. For example, many have assessment
and its member companies are working to developservices, which help physicians step back from their
patient safety measures that help physicians lowerdaily work and evaluate their own practice-an office
their liability exposure while improving the quality of"checkup." This assists doctors in finding new ways
patient care. This is being accomplished by identifyingto improve care.
and eliminating errors in the healthcare system andThere is an important difference between the
educating doctors to protect patients from medicalpatients who are actually harmed by a medical
injury.procedure and those who have an unfortunate
The PIAA Data Sharing Proj-ect, an ongoing claimsoutcome or are simply unhappy with the results. Most
study, is a major driver in advancing patient safety.medical procedures, from coronary bypass surgery to
The Data Sharing Project houses the world's largestLasik vision correction, do involve risk. It is up to the
research database on medical errors. Storing detailedmedical professionals to explain procedures
information on more than 240,000 medical and dentalfully-including the risks. Armed with this knowledge,
claims, the database provides a rich resource for thethe patient can make informed decisions and weigh
investigation of the underlying causes and issuesthe benefits and risks before he or she signs a
pertaining to medical malpractice claims. The projectconsent form.
provides member companies with detailed and