CAP's risk management and patient safety specialists are highly proficient in identifying areas of risk and exposure, and offering risk reduction strategies. CAP's Risk Management Self-Assessment Kit was developed to share the knowledge amassed by these specialists from thousands of risk assessments conducted over the years.

While recently visiting a few physician offices where texting is commonplace among physicians and staff, I asked staff whether they were following the HIPAA safeguards for texting.  Most often, the answer was met with “Sure, we are HIPAA compliant. No worries here.”

Approximately one-third of physicians report experiencing burnout. It is characterized by emotional exhaustion, a decreasing sense of accomplishment, and general cynicism about the medical profession. Are you distracted, overloaded, and stressed? Being a doctor, at this time, is stressful. It is hard to be continuously caring and empathetic in this changing and ambiguous healthcare environment. Do you suffer from some or all of these characteristics?

The risk of cyberattacks, the number of organizations potentially affected, and the damage resulting from them are at unprecedented levels today. News reports are replete with stories of data breaches at large, high profile-organizations, and the number of attacks experienced by hospitals recently provides ample evidence that health care as a sector is not immune, with one report having found that healthcare cyberattacks increased 63 percent in the past year.

Clinical decision support (CDS) systems have been hailed for their potential to reduce medical errors and increase healthcare quality and efficiency; therefore, it is critical for physicians to consider implementing a CDS system at their practice.