Q. What risk management activities does OMIC offer?
A. As mentioned earlier in the section on Premium
Information, OMIC offers seminars,
live and recorded audio programs and online
risk-management courses.
We conduct national seminars each fall at the Academy's annual meeting as well
as regional seminars throughout the year in conjunction with state and subspecialty
ophthalmic society meetings. These seminars cover a wide variety of risk management
issues.
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Q. What other risk management tools are available?
A. On a quarterly basis, OMIC produces the Ophthalmic Risk Management Digest, the country's only professional liability publication dedicated exclusively to ophthalmology.
OMIC has developed sample consent documents for various procedures and situations. Some of these documents are also available in Spanish.
OMIC's "Risk Management Recommendations" contain detailed analyses of ophthalmic risks. Some of the many topics include advertisements for medical/surgical services, non-compliance, responding to unanticipated outcomes, record retention, leaving a practice, and telephone screening of ophthalmic problems.
OMIC also published Practice Without Malpractice in Ophthalmology, a compendium of risk management essays co-authored by Jerome W. Bettman, Sr., MD, and Byron H. Demorest, MD. A complimentary copy of this book is made available to all OMIC policyholders upon request. Additional copies can be purchased.
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Q. Can the risk management department give me personalized assistance?
A. As an OMIC insured, you may call OMIC's Risk Management Hotline to obtain confidential advice on a wide variety of topics, including poor outcomes, proper record documentation, terminating the patient-physician relationship, and closing your office. OMIC considers calls to the Hotline to be confidential; only the insured has the right to share information with the Claims or Underwriting Departments. Therefore, if you are calling Risk Management for assistance with a potential claim, you must also notify the Claims Department in order to trigger coverage.
Risk Management specialists are available to review letters to patients, consent forms you have developed, and other materials and will provide suggestions on appropriate wording to help reduce your liability exposure.
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