Predictive Power of Dependence and Clinical-Social Fragility Index and Risk of Fall in Hospitalized Adult Patients: A Case-Control Study.

OBJECTIVES: Accidental falls are among the leading hospitals' adverse events, with incidence ranging from 2 to 20 events per 1.000 days/patients. The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between in-hospital falls and the score of 3 DEPendence and Clinical-Social Fragility indexes. METHODS: A monocentric case-control study was conducted by retrieving data of in-hospital patients from the electronic health records. RESULTS: Significant differences between the mean scores at the hospital admission and discharge were found. The BRASS scale mean (SD) values at the admission and at the discharge were also significantly higher in cases of in-hospital falls: at the admission 10.2 (±7.7) in cases versus 7.0 (±8.0) in controls (P = 0.003); at the discharge 10.0 (±6.4) versus 6.7 (±7.5) (P = 0.001). Barthel index mean (SD) scores also presented statistically significant differences: at the admission 60.3 (±40.6) in cases versus 76.0 (±34.8) in controls (P = 0.003); at discharge 51.3 (±34.9) versus 73.3 (±35.2) (P = 0.000).Odds ratios were as follows: for Barthel index 2.37 (95% CI, 1.28-4.39; P = 0.003); for Index of Caring Complexity 1.45 (95% CI, 0.72-2.91, P = 0. 255); for BRASS index 1.95 (95% CI, 1.03-3.70, P = 0.026). With BRASS index, the area under the curve was 0.667 (95% CI, 0.595-0.740), thus indicating a moderate predictive power of the scale. CONCLUSIONS: The use of only Conley scale-despite its sensitivity and specificity-is not enough to fully address this need because of the multiple and heterogeneous factors that predispose to in-hospital falls. Therefore, the combination of multiple tools should be recommended.

Comparative Impact Analysis of Low-Deductible Insurance Versus In-house Hospital Assumption of Risk and Management on Medical Malpractice Claims.

OBJECTIVES: Claims management is critical to ensure the safe and high-quality medical care for which liability insurers and/or hospitals are responsible. The aim of this research is to determine whether increasing hospital malpractice risk exposure, with increasing deductibles, has an impact on malpractice claims and payouts. METHODS: The study was conducted at a single tertiary hospital, the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy. Payouts on closed reported and registered claims were analyzed during 4-study periods, which ranged from 1.5 million euro annual aggregate deductibles entirely managed by the insurance company to 5 million euro annual aggregate deductibles entirely managed by the hospital. We retrospectively analyzed 2034 medical malpractice claims submitted between January 1, 2007, and August 31, 2021. Four periods were examined depending on the claims management model adopted, ranging from total outsourcing to the insurer (period A) to an almost total hospital assumption of risk method (period D). RESULTS: We found that progressive hospital assumption of risk is associated with a decrease in the incidence of medical malpractice claims (average variation per year: -3.7%; P = 0.0029 if the 2 initial periods and the 2 last periods-characterized by the highest risk retention-are respectively aggregated and compared), an initial decrease in the mean claims cost followed by an increase that is still lower than the national increase (-5.4% on average), and an increase in the total claims cost (when compared with the period where the insurer solely managed claims). We also found that the rate of increase in payouts was less than the national average. CONCLUSIONS: The assumption of more malpractice risk by the hospital was associated with the adoption of numerous patient safety and risk management initiatives. The decrease in claims incidence could be due to the implementation of patient safety policies, while the cost increase could be attributed to inflation and rising costs of healthcare services and claims. Notably, only the hospital assumption of risk model with a high-deductible insurance coverage is sustainable for the studied hospital, while also being profitable for the insurer. In conclusion, as hospitals progressively assumed more risk and management responsibility of malpractice claims, there was a progressive decrease in the total number of claims, and a less rapid rise in claim payouts as compared with the national average. Even a small assumption of risk appeared to elicit meaningful changes in claim filings and payouts.

Malpractice Claims and Incident Reporting: Two Faces of the Same Coin?

Incident reporting is an important method to identify risks because learning from the reports is crucial in developing and implementing effective improvements. A medical malpractice claims analysis is an important tool in any case. Both incident reports and claims show cases of damage caused to patients, despite incident reporting comprising near misses, cases where no event occurred and no-harm events. We therefore compare the two worlds to assess whether they are similar or definitively different. From 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2021, the claims database of Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS collected 843 claims. From 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021, the incident-reporting database collected 1919 events. In order to compare the two, we used IBNR calculation, usually adopted by the insurance industry to determine loss to a company and to evaluate the real number of adverse events that occurred. Indeed, the number of reported adverse events almost overlapped with the total number of events, which is indicative that incurred-but-not-reported events are practically irrelevant. The distribution of damage events reported as claims in the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021 and related to incidents that occurred in the months of the same period, grouped by quarter, was then compared with the distribution of damage events reported as adverse events and sentinel events in the same period, grouped by quarter. The analysis of the claims database showed that the claims trend is slightly decreasing. However, the analysis of the reports database showed that, in the period 2020-2021, the reports trend was increasing. In our study, the comparison of the two, malpractice claims and incident reporting, documented many differences and weak areas of overlap. Nevertheless, this contribution represents the first attempt to compare the two and new studies focusing on single types of adverse events are, therefore, desirable.