Blasting through the Cycle of Blame to
Achieve a Blame-Free Culture
You have just experienced how The Medical Ombudsman/Mediator™
Program from Carole Houk International (CHI) can halt a perilous
loop of actions and non-actions familiar to thousands of health
provider organizations.
What is the Cycle of Blame?
The Cycle of Blame is a continuous and perilous loop that
is robbing our nation's finest healthcare providers of their
ability to freely practice the true art of medicine. Here's
what happens during the Cycle:
An unanticipated adverse outcome occurs.
Blame is assigned to one or more of the medical team or
provider staff.
Those assigned blame for the adverse outcome fear career,
legal or other repercussions.
A "deny and defend" corporate stance mandates
cover-up of the issues leading to the adverse outcome.
The cover-up creates a network of new problems: most importantly
failure to fix the underlying cause of the adverse outcome,
as well as possibly including mistrust and frustration on
the part of the medical team, angry patients and patients’
families, a poor community image for the provider, and more.
Additionally, the Cycle of Blame is extracting an enormous
and unnecessary financial cost from provider organizations
and insurance companies, their patients and ultimately, our
nation, in the form of medical malpractice claims.
How do you escape the Cycle of Blame and its negative consequences
and move to a blame-free culture critical to identifying problems
and improving patient safety?
The Medical Ombudsman/Mediator (MEDIC+OM)
Program, is a proven, cost-effective way to do the right
thing when things go wrong and dramatically reduces
the staggering expense of medical malpractice claims. By
interceding
at the point of care, a trained MEDIC+OM professional halts the
cycle and helps prevent expensive and adversarial court battles.
In thousands of cases handled since 2001, few have resulted
in the filing of a legal claim.
Imagine a Blame-Free Culture
Imagine a workplace in which providers can give their very
best care freely, without fearing that honest disclosure about
treatment or outcomes will result in a painful and costly
protracted court battle with a patient or patient's family.
Imagine that patients who experience unsatisfactory care
or outcomes have a safe, non-intimidating way of finding out
what happened and why, and a receptive forum in which to express
their frustrations.
Imagine that these emotionally charged situations -which
occur naturally in the healthcare environment - did not have
to destroy trust between patient and caregiver. Between hospital
and physician. Nor jeopardize the reputation and financial
viability of the healthcare institution due to overwhelming
medical malpractice claim defense costs, payouts, and resulting
bad publicity.
Now consider that the cost of designing and implementing
a CHI MEDIC+OM Program is less than the cost of one typical *
malpractice insurance claim. Wouldn't you rather invest in
preventing claims from reaching the litigation stage than
bear the cost of expensive malpractice lawsuits year after
year?
*$312,000, representing average claim and transaction costs
For more information on how to achieve exceptional savings
and improve your organization's healthcare delivery, please
contact us.
