Risk Management Articles
How to Handle the Noncompliant Patient

The noncompliant patient, a patient who fails to follow physician instructions or to keep scheduled appointments, creates a number of problems for the practicing physician. The loss of revenue and time due to patients that miss appointments is evident. However, the noncompliance and missed appointments of patients pose legal risks for physicians as well. Medical […]

The Opioid Crisis

This is a hot topic in the news and among politicians in the state of Missouri. Many are aware of the Governor’s actions to move forward on a prescription drug monitoring program by executive order, even as the matter is debated in the House of Representatives and Senate. In March of 2018, letters were sent […]

The Health Care Provider’s Simple Guide to Responding to a Board of Healing Arts Complaint

The letter appears to be an innocuous business letter in a non-descript envelope. The text is usually passive in tone, asking you to respond to what is normally a one-page handwritten complaint by a disgruntled former patient. It would be easy to view it as a casual request to be dealt with in a casual […]

“Altogether Now” – The Necessity of Practice-Wide Policies and Procedures

Most physicians and other medical professionals have developed “their” way of doing things over the course of their careers, and changing those practices can be difficult. However, when it comes to operating a successful, and claims-free, medical practice, uniformity is required. Effective policies and procedures are needed to ensure everyone understands what is expected of […]

Document Your Way Out of a Claim

If it isn’t written, it wasn’t done.   Nowhere is this maxim more applicable than medical charting. However, these days documenting a visit in the usual SOAP format (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) may not be enough, as adroit plaintiffs’ attorneys fill in blanks in the charting with explanations far from your thought process, but believable […]