Resource Library
The Resource Library is a compendium of consent forms, risk management recommendations, sample documents, articles, and other risk management materials to promote ophthalmic patient safety and reduce liability. Contact riskmanagement@omic.com with questions.
Found
359
resources.
Jul 16, 2014
| Article
To better understand the precise type of documentation issues that influenced the outcome of recent cases, I reviewed OMIC lawsuits that closed in 2012 and 2013. This article will address the most common deficiencies, in decreasing order of frequency.
Feb 6, 2023
| Recommendation
Inaccurate or incomplete documentation is a threat to patient safety and hampers the defense of a medical malpractice lawsuit. Conversely, careful documentation of the history, exam, and decision-making process may dissuade a lawsuit.
Nov 4, 2021
| Risk Management Bulletin
Making medical decisions over the phone is a necessary part of practice, but there are risks: OMIC’S claims experience confirms that inadequate telephone screening, improper decision-making, and lack of documentation all play a significant role in ophthalmic malpractice claims.
Aug 4, 2020
| Consent Form
Jun 26, 2019
| Risk Management Bulletin
Physicians often ask at what point the physician-patient relationship begins.
Nov 9, 2016
| Consent Form
Jun 26, 2019
| Article
OMIC Risk Management has documents that provide an overview of EMTALA (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) and describe your responsibilities in common scenarios involving after-hours care.
Aug 13, 2019
| Risk Management Bulletin
OMIC would like to remind you of the importance of developing EHR guidelines for your practice.
Aug 8, 2024
| Consent Form
Feb 27, 2020
| Recommendation
Physicians may treat their employees and should be aware there are patient safety and professional liability risks if the physician does not provide medical care in the same manner as any other patient.
May 6, 2024
| Recommendation
The Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted by Congress in 1986 to ensure public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay, insurance status, national origin, race, creed, or color.
Aug 20, 2024
| Sample Protocol
EMTALA On-Call Duties focuses on on-call and follow-up duties.
Oct 15, 2018
| Article
A number of plaintiffs who filed a claim against OMIC insureds after developing endophthalmitis inadvertently delayed their own diagnosis and treatment. Our experts reviewing such claims try to determine whether the defendant could have handled the situation better.
Aug 15, 2018
| Article
Infection is a risk of all surgeries. Endophthalmitis is a particularly worrisome type of infection because it can lead to severe vision loss, blindness, and loss of the eye.
Oct 14, 2018
| Case Study
An ophthalmologist injected 8 patients to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Despite treatment, each patient lost visual acuity. Seven of the eight patients filed lawsuits against the ophthalmologist and practice. From OMIC’s perspective, these cases were indefensible and needed to be settled.
Aug 12, 2023
| Article
OMIC has published two reports of endophthalmitis claims studies, one in 2006 and another in 2017. This issue of the Digest updates those studies with data from OMIC’s endophthalmitis claims closed between January 2018 and December 2022, thereby creating a complete analysis of endophthalmitis claims experience from the time of OMIC’s founding in 1987 through 2022.
Aug 14, 2019
| Article
The lead article provided detailed advice on what to do if equipment or a medical device (EMD) malfunctions and harms a patient. This article will focus on identifying opportunities for ensuring safe use of EMDs, drawing upon opinions voiced by defense and plaintiff experts in EMD lawsuits.
Nov 9, 2016
| Consent Form
Nov 9, 2016
| Consent Form
Aug 14, 2019
| Article
Ophthalmologists regularly use equipment and medical devices (EMDs) while caring for their patients. Sometimes, things go wrong. Injured patients may allege that an EMD malfunctioned or was used improperly. They may sue the ophthalmologist, the surgery center, and the manufacturer of the EMD. This issue of the Digest will use select closed claims to illustrate the initial steps the ophthalmologist, staff, and surgery center should take to manage these EMD events.
Mar 15, 2020
| Case Study
This was a “perfect storm” for the plaintiff: the equipment had inherent design flaws that complicated the insured’s and the technician’s set up of the microkeratome, making both the manufacturer and the ophthalmologist liable for the harm.
Oct 10, 2024
| Case Study
Use of excess gas cases usually have devastating visual outcomes and often result in expensive settlements.
Feb 13, 2020
| Consent Form
Mar 13, 2020
| Consent Form
Jun 30, 2015
| Risk Management Bulletin
There are two Eylea consent forms.
Oct 25, 2023
| Consent Form
Nov 5, 2015
| Consent Form
Nov 6, 2016
| Consent Form
Feb 21, 2018
| Case Study
A patient presented to an OMIC insured comprehensive ophthalmologist on referral from the emergency department. He reported a fall at work where he struck the left side of his head, face, and hip. The insured did not appear to take the recent fall into account when evaluating the vision loss.
Aug 14, 2020
| Case Study
Both OMIC-insured cornea specialists were referred patients with the diagnosis of HSV, and they both continued to use this condition as their working diagnosis even though there were symptoms suggestive of acanthamoeba and the patients’ conditions did not improve. Under these circumstances, according to both defense and plaintiff experts, acanthamoeba needed to be considered.
Aug 11, 2022
| Case Study
OMIC has seen several sizeable settlements resulting from failure to diagnose giant cell arteritis cases in the past few years. The settlements are large because GCA, if diagnosis does not occur or is delayed, often leads to bilateral blindness in elderly patients. OMIC’s claims related to GCA have and continue to be problematic and are extremely difficult to defend in front of a jury.
Feb 20, 2017
| Article
In a study of OMIC diagnostic error (DE) claims, we learned that those involving a retinal condition were the most common, accounting for 38% of the claims closed between 2008 and 2014. By far, the most frequently missed diagnosis in our entire study was retinal detachment (RD).
Nov 16, 2020
| Recommendation
Falls cause significant injury. This document offers some guidance on which patients are likely to fall, and provides additional screening tools. By asking some simple questions and watching for certain behaviors, ophthalmologists and the eye care team can identify and assist those most at risk.
Jun 19, 2015
| Risk Management Bulletin
OMIC devoted an issue of the Digest to falls and offers suggestions on ways to identify and assist those most at risk in our Risk Management Recommendations document on fall prevention.
Nov 1, 2019
| Article
On Feb. 3, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning statement to consumers and health care practitioners.
Jan 9, 2015
| Case Study
It is important to review key studies like topography before the day of surgery. Even though the ophthalmologist correctly revised the surgical plan from bilateral simultaneous LASIK to LASIK OD and PRK OS following a diagnosis of forme fruste keratoconus, the patient deserved more information regarding the specific higher risks she faced postoperatively due to the FFK.
Sep 9, 2022
| Video
This five-part series includes the following: "How Staff Can Save Vision," "Policies Protect Patients," It's More Than Just Loss of Vision," "Harm to a Patient and a Humble Outcome," and "Parties, Patience, and Paying Attention."
Oct 11, 2013
| Article
Florida passed a law on comanagement (Ch 2013-26, Laws of Florida) that went into effect on July 1, 2013. Understand your obligations to the patient under this law.
Feb 9, 2022
| Risk Management Bulletin
Read more about delegation of tasks, management of complications, and informed consent for fluorescein angiography.
Nov 8, 2024
| Consent Form
Jul 13, 2017
| Recommendation
Here are some risk management recommendations to help you and your staff members prevent and better respond to the risks of the procedure. Issues addressed in Fluorescein Angiography Recommendations and Consent include delegation of tasks, informed consent, emergency response equipment, and management of complications.
Nov 1, 2018
| Sample Protocol
Oct 29, 2014
| Case Study
Ensuring that research subjects meet enrollment criteria protects the research subject, the investigator, and the data. The trial developers in this case built safety into the protocol for enrollment through redundancy: findings of edema were required on both clinical exam and OCT, so either a competent exam or an accurate OCT would have excluded this subject from the trial.
Jun 12, 2017
| Recommendation
Ophthalmologists and their staff often provide free vision screening examinations. We feel that the very low risk of liability from these exams can be further minimized by taking a few steps.
Aug 9, 2024
| Risk Management Bulletin
We would like to bring your attention to updates made to the Ophthalmic Practice Rules (Eyeglass Rule) on June 27, 2024, by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Oct 6, 2014
| Consent Form
Jun 26, 2019
| Risk Management Bulletin
Our resources explore the reasons for poor outcomes, the standard to which medical experts hold physicians who treat these patients, and the measures ophthalmologists can take to improve the likelihood of a correct and timely diagnosis.
Aug 17, 2024
| Sample Letter or Form
Use OMIC's sample GCA Checklist to support information gathering.
Aug 17, 2024
| Consent Form
Aug 17, 2022
| Risk Management Bulletin
OMIC is pleased to announce the release of our newest Digest regarding Giant Cell Arteritis.