When it comes to today's healthcare environment, cyber security breaches are an ongoing concern for providers and their practices. From phishing emails to ransomware attacks, healthcare organizations are frequent targets due to the high value of patient data and the complexity of medical systems.
OUM Risk Management Specialist
Recent Posts
Cyber Security in Healthcare: Practical Tips to Protect Your Practice
Oct 1, 2025 7:00:05 AM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Risk Management
Texting with Patients: The Risks and Safer Alternatives
Sep 10, 2025 5:40:17 PM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Risk Management, Compliance
Nearly everyone texts to communicate. It’s quick, easy, and convenient. However, texting with patients carries professional, legal, and ethical risks, including:
- Privacy and HIPAA compliance. Standard texting is not secure. Messages can be intercepted, viewed on shared devices, or accidentally sent to the wrong number. Therefore, any patient’s personal health information sent via text risks a HIPAA violation and possible fines.
Maintaining Professional Boundaries with Patients
Sep 10, 2025 5:39:39 PM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Risk Management, Practice Management
Professional boundaries are the ethical, legal, and relational limits that define the interactions between healthcare professionals and their patients. They protect the therapeutic relationship by ensuring that it remains focused on the patient’s health, safety, and well-being. Maintaining these boundaries is crucial for fostering trust, preserving professional integrity, and avoiding conflicts of interest.
The Risks and Benefits of Patients Recording Visits
Aug 5, 2025 11:22:02 AM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Risk Management
Patients recording, either audio or video, their encounters with healthcare providers has become increasingly common. While healthcare providers may be alarmed when a patient asks to record their visit, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Recording patient encounters has both risks and benefits.
Reducing Staff Turnover at Your Chiropractic Practice
Aug 5, 2025 11:13:25 AM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Practice Management
Staff turnover places a significant strain on an office's finances and resources. It increases expenses related to recruiting, hiring, and training new employees, along with the cost of covering temporary staffing needs. Productivity often declines as attention is diverted to focus on the hiring and onboarding process. Additionally, turnover can negatively impact staff morale, especially when the remaining employees must take on extra responsibilities to compensate for vacant roles.
Office Staffing: Handling Time Off Requests
Jul 8, 2025 11:01:52 AM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Practice Management
Managing office staffing and handling time-off requests effectively is key to maintaining smooth operations, avoiding staff burnout, and ensuring good patient care.
Having Difficult Conversations with Patients
Jul 8, 2025 10:14:12 AM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Practice Management
Having difficult conversations with patients and their family is one of the most challenging yet important responsibilities in healthcare. These conversations can involve topics like delivering bad news, discussing prognosis, setting boundaries, addressing non-compliance, or managing unrealistic expectations.
Here are some steps you can implement to optimize difficult conversations you need to have with your patient.
Compassionate, Inclusive, and Competent Healthcare: Focus on the LGBTQIA+ Community
Jun 6, 2025 11:40:27 AM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Compliance, Practice Management
While most healthcare providers are compassionate and want to provide optimal care to their patients, implicit biases exist. Healthcare providers may not be aware of implicit biases, which may be subtle and unintentional, that can influence clinical interactions, lead to a lack of trust between the patient and the healthcare provider, and result in healthcare disparities.
Managing Patient Complaints to Optimize Outcomes
Jun 6, 2025 11:39:49 AM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Practice Management
You strive to provide quality care and good customer service to your patients. But inevitably, you will have a patient or patient’s family member that is not satisfied with the care you (or your staff) provided.
The Impact of Physician Burnout
May 12, 2025 2:41:36 PM / by OUM Risk Management Specialist posted in Practice Management
Physician burnout is a long-term stress reaction characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (indifference toward or detachment from work), and a decreased sense of personal achievement. Physicians are especially prone to burnout with almost half of physicians reporting at least one symptom of burnout.
Causes and Effects of Burnout
Physician burnout not only negatively affects physicians and their families, but it also puts patients at risk. Evidence suggests that physician burnout worsens the quality of patient care, increases the risk of medical errors, and decreases patient satisfaction.