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The healthcare setting often involves sensitive and intimate exams that present challenges other businesses don’t face. Medical chaperones can help provide a level of comfort for patients and may help ensure the best possible experience for patients and providers alike. In so doing, the likelihood of a sexual misconduct allegation based on a misunderstanding is greatly reduced.¹

Patients are leaning heavily on physician reviews to help them select a physician.¹ Recent developments also suggest that these reviews may one day affect physician availability in payer networks.² As important as these reviews are—and may become—it helps to understand what they actually say and what your practice can do about them. This special report describes the nature of these reviews and offers strategies for encouraging positive ones to help you maintain a positive online reputation.

While the news is full of high-profile HIPAA breach cases and assessments of multi-million-dollar fines, smaller practices are not immune. They often succumb to the same types of error and bad judgment that affect larger providers. Fortunately, by following a few sensible guidelines, even smaller practices can safeguard themselves against the improper disclosure of protected health information (PHI) that leads to a HIPAA breach.

When adverse events happen in medicine, it is felt not only by the patient and the patient’s loved ones, but also by the clinicians and other medical team members caring for the patient. Known as the second victim syndrome in health care circles, it refers to a physician or other caregiver who sustains psychological harm as a result of being involved in an unanticipated and often traumatic patient outcome.

Fear of stigma, lack of confidentiality, and worry that they would have to report counseling on their license renewal applications are common reasons physicians fail to obtain necessary mental health treatment. To overcome these barriers and support clinicians dealing with second victim syndrome, organizations should promote the idea that seeking support is not a sign of weakness. To do so is a smart, responsible move.