Although the goal of a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is to find and examine all pieces of an event in order to determine the primary contributors to the system failure, often one important perspective is missing from the team…that of the patient and family. Involving patients in RCA is fraught with difficulty and concerns. There are legal issues; issues of confidentiality; issues of peer review protection; issues of emotional safety of the participants and issues of organizational readiness to name a few. Nevertheless, some organizations have found that the view of the patient can be both an enlightening and healing process. When and how can you successfully involve a patient in the RCA process? This program will interview two well known risk management professionals who have had success in this endeavor.

Major changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have created additional concerns for health care risk managers. This concern has been exacerbated by “e” Discovery rules in many states. The new discovery rules present a number of interesting questions regarding what is “e” in a health care organization. Where does the data reside? Who controls it? Who has access to it? This seminar will address these questions and offer practical strategies for managing “e” discovery.