Five Ways to Improve Care Team Performance

Top risk drivers

In an analysis of Constellation’s medical malpractice claims, we found that the top drivers of risk and harm are related to:

• Surgical team performance
• Diagnostic care processes
• Obstetrical team performance
• Patient and resident falls
• Team communication

Top contributing factors

Contributing factors are risk factors that contribute to injuries and malpractice claims. These factors are amenable to risk mitigation strategies and formulate the basis of an action plan to address areas of risk.

The top contributing factors to risk and harm events identified in our analysis are:

• Clinical judgment factors in failing to ensure safety from falls, assessment and monitoring issues, and selection of surgical procedures
• Technical skill and technique issues including known procedural risks and complications
• Communication breakdowns among the care team, and with patients/residents and families
• Diagnostic process system failures

Risk Reports

We publish Risk Reports that outline the top allegations made against clinicians and care teams and highlight the contributing factors to unsafe care processes. These risk reports can help policyholders identify vulnerabilities in care processes and implement strategies to mitigate risk.

• Reducing Diagnostic Error in Your Clinic 
• Reducing Resident Harm Events 
• Reducing Hospital Harm Events
• Reducing Patient Harm in the Emergency Department
• Reducing Obstetrical Harm Events   
• Reducing Surgical Patient Harm Events

Five ways to improve care team performance

1. Learn more about the top risk drivers and contributing factors to patient/resident harm and assess your organization’s risk.
2. Invest in team and communication skills training.
3. Implement a comprehensive fall reduction program that includes targeted interventions, expectation/goal setting, and shared decision-making with patients/residents and families.
4. Analyze your harm events to detect common, causal and contributing factors and then redesign safer patient/resident care processes. Share lessons learned across your organization.
5. Enhance your team’s ability to prepare for and respond to a patient/resident harm event with the tools and best practices found in our HEAL Prepare Toolkit.

HEAL Program

Constellation’s HEAL program provides healing benefits for care teams and their organizations because we truly believe that what’s good for care teams is good for business.

To access policyholder Risk Resources, including the HEAL Prepare Toolkit, sign in to MyAccount:

Share this blog article:

---