Letter from the Chief Medical Officer
Dear Colleagues:
With an engaged physician community and a strong commitment to continuous process improvement, BWH continues to benefit from a positive experience adjustment credit from CRICO/RMF, the patient safety and medical malpractice company owned by and serving the Harvard medical community.
Founded by the HMS hospital community in 1976, CRICO’s performance as our liability carrier is unparalleled with respect to the number of claims successfully settled or defended. For the most part, CRICO/RMF provides us twice the medical malpractice insurance coverage for half the cost of other insurers and, when necessary, risk management and legal support and advice that is second to none. The diligent vigor with which claims are defended by superb attorneys is well recognized among the legal community.
Far more than merely a liability carrier, CRICO/RMF works hand in hand with many of our colleagues throughout BWH and our sibling institutions within Partners and the HMS community to help clinicians improve practice and performance. CRICO/RMF truly shares our system-wide commitment to advancing care with a specific focus on patient safety.
Much of our success in this area comes from our hospital-wide commitment to safety. In our ORs, we have implemented the World Health Organization’s checklist, and we have launched a pilot program to barcode surgical sponges to ensure no sponges are left inadvertently in patients. In addition, through HealthStream, we ensure all our physicians complete mission-critical courses, including one on the National Patient Safety Goals.
Last year, CRICO/RMF joined forces with our Center for Professionalism and Peer Support for training on disclosure of adverse events, enabling our disclosure coaches to explore effective strategies to enhance education and training for frontline clinicians. And for two years now, our insurer has partnered with us in developing training sessions for clinical fellows with respect to risks specific to trainees.
CRICO/RMF also helps us identify areas where we can improve. We need to continue to build workflow-sensitive solutions to guard against misdiagnosis and to reinforce training and increase awareness around the informed consent process. We can and should approach informed consent with our patients in a way that helps establish a protective relationship with them and their families. It’s much more than just a piece of paper; it must reflect an informative and thoughtful conversation.
CRICO/RMF is more than just our insurer. They are our organizational partners in making sure we remain in a position to deliver the safest care possible to our patients.
Sincerely,
Andy Whittemore, MD
Chief Medical Officer