 INSIGHTThe Sullivan Group's e-Learning Newsletter
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March 2014 - In This Issue
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 Thank you for reviewing INSIGHT, a newsletter outlining news and events at The Sullivan Group and providing valuable advice and tips from the esteemed members of the RSQ� Collaborative.
Dan Sullivan, MD, JD, FACEP
President & CEO
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SAVING LIVES. REDUCING RISK.
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Leveraging Continuing Education for Nurses & Physicians to bring about meaningful change.
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The Sullivan Group offers a series of scalable, comprehensive loss prevention and patient safety programs, specifically targeted at reducing medical errors and malpractice claims across the care continuum. The RSQ� Solutions (Risk-Safety-Quality) programs are tailored for a variety of medical and nursing specialties and based on a proven cyclical model of continuous quality improvement that drives change, strengthens clinical performance, and reduces risk exposure. Contact us to learn more.
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If you have received a forwarded copy of this email and would like to subscribe, please follow this link. |
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Course Needs Assessment Survey
Help us decide on new topics!
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XL Group's Bermuda Insurance Operations partner with The Sullivan Group to provide clinical risk and loss prevention services to healthcare clients
On February 11, 2014, XL Group's Bermuda Insurance Operations announced a new partnership with The Sullivan Group ("TSG"), one of the premier providers of clinical risk and loss prevention services to hospitals, physicians and nurses throughout the US.
Through this new partnership, XL Group's Bermuda Insurance Operations, XL Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd ("XLIB"), seek to align their portfolio of healthcare clients and prospective clients with TSG's mission of improving patient safety by reducing medical errors and lowering the frequency of malpractice claims.
Wesly Guiteau, Senior Vice President and Healthcare Practice Leader at XLIB, said: "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with TSG to provide our clients with first-class complementary risk management and online education services. For more than 27 years, XLIB has provided leading insurance solutions to this industry. This new partnership demonstrates XLIB's continuing commitment to our clients and it is part of a multi-prong effort to realign our platform with our clients' growing need for insurance products, including risk management support."
Read more...
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RSQ� Consulting
Offering Onsite Risk Assessments
Enterprise Risk ~ Emergency Department ~ Labor & Delivery
The Sullivan Group has a long history of providing solutions for organizations to improve the quality of care provided to patients. By offering healthcare professionals the tools, resources and education to improve patient safety, RSQ� Solutions, we have effected measurable changes in claims. Designed to complement these proven offerings, The Sullivan Group has launched RSQ� Consulting. This service helps organizations facing numerous competing priorities to identify their greatest areas of improvement, classify those risks, select tactics to address them, and measure performance.
Critical to the success of any program is the ability to track performance and implement improvements. As such, TSG encourages the use of Dr. W. Edwards Deming's Plan-Do-Study-Act model for continuous improvement. Using the Report of Findings & Recommendations to guide a conversation, TSG will work with the client to select tactics and identify goals and metrics used to assess efficacy for each tactic. Once the plan is complete and approved, TSG will assist (as relevant) the client in implementing recommended strategies and track data used to evaluate efficacy. Following a 9-12 month implementation cycle, the data will be analyzed and a report provided to the client to outline performance. This report will identify areas of improvement and outline improvement strategies. TSG will again, as applicable and/or desired, assist in the implementation of recommended changes.
Please contact us to learn more about this new offering.
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Conferences
We are attending and/or exhibiting at the following conferences. We hope to see you there!
- PLUS Medical Liability Conference - 4/23-24 in Atlanta, GA
- RIMS Annual Conference - 4/27-30 in Denver
Faculty Speaking Engagements
Arnie Mackles is still on the road! Please contact Arnie if you are interested in learning more about his presentations or to check availability.
Shelley Cohen, RN, MSN, CEN is presenting at the following conference:
2014 Emergency Care Conference
March 19-21, 2014
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Psychiatric Patients: Evaluation of the Suicidal Patient
Hospital suicides have attracted the focus of several organizations, including The Joint Commission, which designated hospital suicide as a "sentinel event," and the National Quality Forum, which states that "patient suicide, attempted suicide, or self-harm resulting in serious disability, while being cared for in a healthcare facility" is a "never event" that is usually preventable. Currently there is no fail-safe system in place for healthcare providers to prevent every suicide, whether inpatient or outpatient. There are, however, strategies available to identify individuals at risk as they interface with the healthcare system and to intervene with the goal to prevent suicide.
In this activity, we focus on the emergency evaluation of the suicidal patient. We define the challenges and arm practitioners with tools to identify and evaluate these patients. Actual case studies are presented to illustrate key principles of caring for suicidal patients. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: perform a proper medical assessment of suicidal patients; identify the high-risk factors for suicide during the evaluation of ED patients; and determine the most effective intervention(s) for patients in the ED who are high risk for completed suicide.
CME Courses in Development
The TSG faculty and staff are currently working on the following courses. We will keep you posted on our progress, but please do not hesitate to contact us to learn more about what we have planned for each topic.
- Workplace Violence, Disruptive Behavior & Hostile Environment in Healthcare
- 7 Simple Strategies to Reduce Readmissions
- Information [Cyber] Security Tips for Healthcare Professionals
- Pediatric Seconds-to-Minutes Emergencies Part 2
- Child Abuse: Early Detection & Recognition in the Emergency Department
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RSQ� Collaborative Spotlight
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| We appreciate this month's contributions from the following members of The Sullivan Group RSQ� Collaborative. For more information about the Collaborative, please click here. |
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Arnie Mackles, MD, MBA, LHRM
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Risk Management & Patient Safety
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Patient Safety CATCHPHRASES for 2014: Reducing Readmissions, Improving Handoffs, Effective Discharges, Reimbursement Penalties, Provider-Patient Communication, Value-Based Purchasing
Healthcare reform as created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) has presented multiple patient safety challenges for providers. It is imperative that healthcare organizations implement techniques and policies that have been proven to SAFELY meet these challenges. Online education can help you reach a vast audience with the consistent message; you can add value to the experience by selecting courses that award continuing education.
It is my personal mission to engage colleagues and friends in discussions, whether in person or online, around enterprise-level issues that impact the professional's ability to deliver the highest quality care. In the process, we explore the challenges and barriers to reduce the costs associated with complications and conditions that lead to non-reimbursement, and at times, litigation. As a means to reach a broader audience with the message and impact increasing numbers of professionals and the patients they serve, I'm working diligently to develop courses on timely topics. Here is a preliminary list of courses. Please let me know if you have any ideas or challenges; I'm committed to building and championing courses that meet your needs:
- Handoffs, Transitions & Discharges: Key Moments in Patient Care
- 7 Strategies to Reduce Hospital Readmissions - coming soon!
- Communication Strategies to Improve Patient Safety in High-Risk Situations
- 11 Simple Strategies to Prevent Medication Errors
- Technology Revolution: Improving Patient Safety, Reducing Liability
- Essentials of Patient Safety
- Prevention of Medical Errors
- Information [Cyber] Security Tips for Healthcare Professionals - coming soon!
Follow Arnie 
Website: www.drmackles.com
Follow this topic: RSQ_Education 
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Shelley Cohen, RN, MSN, CEN
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30,000 Triage Courses taken since 2011!
We are pleased to announce that over 30,000 Triage Fundamentals courses have been taken by nurses across the country. Since the first course in the Triage Fundamentals series launched in 2011, ten additional activities have been added to the library. The courses are making measurable changes for patients, and the hugely anticipated Triage Assessment tool (that we are currently beta-testing) provides nursing leaders with the tools to make changes and further advance triage care.
Triage Tip Of The Month: Joint Pain
Joint pain can result from trauma, infection, disease process, and inflammation. Regardless of the cause, the triage nurse must consider the patient's perception of pain and apply pain-scoring criteria from either the CTAS or the ESI triage system. Other considerations should include the following:
- Is the patient febrile?
- Does the patient have other symptoms related to organ failure?
- Are there neurological symptoms associated with the joint area?
- Is the joint area edematous, red, or warm to the touch?
- Does the patient also have a rash?
- Was the onset of pain rapid in nature?
- Is this patient immunocompromised?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, consider the patient as a possible high-risk scenario that may be related to an acute infection process. It is absolutely appropriate to differentiate your decision between a Level 2 and Level 3 triage based on the patient's perception of pain along with his or her history and presentation.
SOURCE: Baer, Alan (2014). The Approach to the Painful Joint. Retrieved from, http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/336054-overview
Follow this topic: RSQ_TriageSTAT
Featured Courses:
- Triage Fundamentals: A comprehensive suite of eleven (11) courses (ranging in length from one to two hours) targeting risk issues in triage nursing, and covering topics such as The Risky Business of Triage, practice standards, assessment and documentation, etc.
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SorryWorks! Disclosure & Apology
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The Second Victim of Medical Errors
When an adverse medical event happens, undoubtedly the patient and family suffer, but not enough attention has been paid to the grieving experienced by physicians, nurses and other clinicians. Clinicians have been told post-event to "shut up" and suffer in silence, and have even been praised for stoicism; suffering in silence can ruin careers and marriages and even lead to suicides or substance dependency.
The Sorry Works! disclosure movement is not only helping patients and families, but also clinicians-the second victims of medical errors. We are committed to developing an online course to help the second victims of medical errors and are asking for your help. What do you think? Do you have stories or ideas to share with us?
Have you had a personal experience and by sharing you could benefit others? Please send me an email, so we can speak confidentially.
Featured Courses:
- Disclosure & Apology: Fundamentals
- Disclosure & Apology: Just-In-Time Trainer
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Leon Gussow, MD, FACMT, RDMS
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ACEP Clinical Policy on Prescribing Opioids
In 2012, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the surge in deaths from prescription opioid overdose an "epidemic" and the fastest growing drug problem in the United States. In making this determination, the agency pointed to the fact that approximately 15,000 people died of such overdoses in the year 2010. This surge in overdose deaths has mirrored the dramatic rise in the amount of opioid analgesics being prescribed. For example, from 1997 to 2007, the amount of opioids prescribed in the United States increased from the equivalent of 96 mg of morphine per person to about 700 mg per person - an increase of over 600%.
This epidemic has placed a substantial burden on emergency departments that have to deal not only with the overdoses themselves, but also with problems of addiction, misuse, drug diversion, adverse effects of the medications, and patients who, for whatever reason, may be seeking drugs.
Recognizing this problem, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy called on the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) to partner in developing evidence-based clinical guidelines to establish best practices for opioid prescribing in the emergency department.
The clinical policy ACEP developed contains recommendations - not mandates - based on medical literature (Ann Emerg Med 2012;62:499-525). These recommendations include:
- Long-acting or extended-release opioids (e.g., methadone, OxyContin) should not be used to treat acute pain.
- Outpatient opioids should not be routinely prescribed for exacerbations of chronic non-cancer pain.
- If opioids are prescribed on discharge, they should be for the lowest feasible dose and for a period of less than 1 week.
Although there may be times when clinical circumstances make it reasonable to go outside of these guidelines, emergency practitioners should be familiar with their recommendations.
Follow Leon
Featured Courses:
- Gastrointestinal Decontamination in Toxic Ingestions
- Opiate Agonists & Antagonists
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The Sullivan Group is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Some continuing education activities were approved by the Emergency Nurses Association, an accredited approver of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
The details of the CME and/or CE for all TSG activities can be found here.
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Contact us
Brant Roth
Director of Business Development
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Karen Ragland
Account Executive
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