You are a health information professional closely involved with risk management at General Hospital, a teaching institution. Beginning this July, the hospital will incorporate presentations by hospital employees into its Grand Rounds series of lectures.



You have been asked to present the lecture covering risk management. Design a presentation addressing the legal aspects of risk management, particularly concentrating on patient record requirements and incident reports.



The growth and development of risk management in general and as applied to General Hospital.

Patient record requirements must address

Aproper documentation, using examples of a properly documented health record and a poorly documented health record;

Bsecurity concerns, including the active management of the availability of health records; and

Cconfidentiality, focusing in particular on the risk of talking about patients in appropriate spots, such as hospital elevators.

Incident reports must address

Awhat they are,

Bwhy they are necessary,

Chow to and how not to complete one,

Dhow they are used, and (e) how to protect them from discovery.

An explanation of the attorney–client privilege in the context of incident reports.