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Error Management: Legal and Regulatory Responsibilities

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Error Reduction and Prevention in Surgical Pathology

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Abstract

Local, state, and federal standards, regulations, and laws regulate laboratory environments and activities that affect safety and influence surgical pathology error prevention and reduction. Laws and regulations are created by governmental bodies, and nongovernmental bodies such as medical societies enforce standards. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the primary governmental entity involved with surgical pathology. To meet increasingly stringent accrediting agency requirements regarding surgical pathology error, surgical pathology laboratories have instituted or strengthened a number of error reduction programs. Medical malpractice risk reduction from reduced anatomic pathology error has long been a focus for pathologists, and misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, and failure to diagnose are typical allegations in medical malpractice lawsuits. The legal system is adapting to take into account the standard of cares’ increasing requirement for early, accurate, and specific diagnoses by adopting the “loss of chance” doctrine. In the future, checklists, a relatively recent addition to the health quality armamentarium, may not only provide increasing cost savings but also help decrease medical error. Apology for medical error, not long ago considered to be a popular mechanism for reducing medical malpractice risk, has recently received heavy criticism, and its future use is problematic. A no-fault system of compensation for medical injuries might in the future allow for more surgical pathology error transparency and yield increased patient safety. In the end, advancement of medical error reduction, including surgical pathology error reduction, will require reduced physician antipathy toward other stakeholders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA

    Timothy Craig Allen MD, JD

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  1. Timothy Craig Allen MD, JD
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Correspondence to Timothy Craig Allen MD, JD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pathology, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida, USA

    Raouf E. Nakhleh

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Allen, T. (2015). Error Management: Legal and Regulatory Responsibilities. In: Nakhleh, R. (eds) Error Reduction and Prevention in Surgical Pathology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2339-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2339-7_14

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