August 19, 2020 by matray

Conventus Inter-Insurance Exchange announced the launch of its modern and easy-to-navigate website, www.conventusnj.com, providing physicians, practice administrators and brokers with valuable resources for their clinical and business operations.

Conventus focuses the new website on providing easy access to information and tools that help physicians and their teams with the daily challenges of managing a practice. Many resources are made available exclusively to Conventus insured members, but there is publicly available knowledge for physicians, practice administrators and brokers.

“Considering the medical professional liability insurance space is crowded in New Jersey, it is crucial for successful brokers to stand out by demonstrating value beyond just standard insurance offerings,” said Amy Berezein, Conventus president. “Brokers must leverage comprehensive solutions and industry resources that provide them with a competitive advantage in today’s competitive medical professional liability insurance space.”

The website features educational solutions to help physicians, practice administrators and brokers navigate today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment. The site’s Knowledge Center is organized into logical components to enable users to acquire the information that they need as quickly and effectively as possible.

• Clinical Resources provide valuable information and tools designed to help practices address clinical issues, enhance patient safety, maximize office workflow, and find solutions for measuring and realizing efficiencies in the office.

• Operational Resources help busy medical professionals keep their practices current on the latest regulations impacting operations.

• Compliance Resources provide comprehensive service support, training, and policies/procedures focused on the development of corporate compliance programs, such as OSHA, HIPAA, and Fraud and Integrity.

• Value-Based Care and Quality Payment Program resources support practices implementing processes to succeed in their transformation to value-based care.

• Webinar Resources are online educational programs to help practice teams understand emerging risks and learn practical mitigation strategies.

• The Conventus 24/7 Practice Advice Hotline is an exclusive, confidential, and free hotline for insured members and their staff to receive real-time advice and consultation.

• Educational Briefs include risk alerts and e-newsletters focused on providing up-to-date information on current healthcare trends and key issues that impact physician practices.

• eLearning allows for online Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) approved courses for more than 25 specialties.

August 19, 2020 by matray

Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis. According to a 2018 report by the medical professional liability insurance company Coverys, Diagnostic Accuracy: Room for Improvement, diagnosis-related failures are the single largest root cause of medical malpractice claims and result in indemnity payments higher than the next five highest categories combined. More than half (54%) of diagnosis-related claims are considered high-severity cases — with 36% of those cases resulting in death.

Medication Errors. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration estimates that as many as 1.3 million patients are harmed annually as a result of preventable medication errors. According to a 2016 benchmark study of medication errors conducted by CRICO Strategies, one-in-nine medical malpractice claims involve a medication error.

Surgical errors.  According to a 2020 white paper by Coverys, Surgery Risks: Through the Lens of Liability Claims, 25% of the more than 10,000 closed medical malpractice claims analyzed by the medical professional liability insurer cited a surgical allegation. Of those, 78% of surgical allegations were related to practitioner performance during the surgery itself; 47% of those claims from more than 50 surgical specialties involve just three specialties: General Surgery (22%), Orthopedic Surgery (17%), and Neurosurgery (8%).

Childbirth injuries. Medical injuries during child birth are among the most expensive to indemnify. According to the Birth Injury Justice Center, approximately 7 out of every 1,000 children born in the United States will suffer a birth injury. A significant percentage of birth injuries are avoidable and occur because of medical negligence or physical trauma.

Anesthesia injury. According to a 2020 anesthesia closed-claim study by The Doctors Company, the mean indemnity for anesthesia injuries increased by 12.5% since 2013 — from $373,593 between 2007-2012 to $420,250 between 2013-2018.