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Liability Risks in Interdisciplinary Care: Thinking Outside the Box
- Dr. Gabriela Prada
Principal Research Associate The Conference Board of Canada prada@conferenceboard.ca
June 11, 2007
Liability Risks in Interdisciplinary Care: Thinking Outside the Box - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Liability Risks in Interdisciplinary Care: Thinking Outside the Box - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Liability Risks in Interdisciplinary Care: Thinking Outside the Box Dr. Gabriela Prada Principal Research Associate The Conference Board of Canada prada@conferenceboard.ca June 11, 2007 www.conferenceboard.ca The Conference Board of Canada
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Recent CBoC Publications on Health
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About this Report
- Liability issues had been mentioned in
many consultations as a source of concern for IDC practices
- Research question: should liability risks
deter participation in IDC practices?
- Health Canada provided financial
support to answer this question
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Methodology
- A systematic collection and analysis of court decisions in
Canada addressing negligence in the provision of health services
- A search for relevant U.S. court cases
- A review of articles in Canadian and international health-
care and legal academic journals that examine liability issues in IDC practices
- An analysis of findings from a reference group meeting
- An analysis of findings from 8 interviews with
professional insurers, protective associations and brokers
- A review of malpractice liability insurance in five
countries www.conferenceboard.ca
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Liability Risks for Health Professionals
- Main sources of personal liability risks are
type of profession, specialization and geographic area of work
- IDC introduces additional risks:
– Inappropriate delegation of duties – Abdication of responsibilities – Joint and several liability
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Recommendations for Health Professionals
Health professionals need to:
- Understand their scope of practice and their
limitations as set out in the provincial legislation
- Understand the scopes of practice of the other
health professionals in the team
- Be aware of, and comply with, policies that
govern their interdisciplinary interactions
- Ensure they and their partners have professional
liability insurance
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Liability Risks for Health Care Organizations
- Inadequate policies
- Breach of institutional policies
- Vicarious liability
A legal reminder: Incorporations and partnerships do not limit individual responsibilities and may even increase them
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Recommendations for Health Care Organizations
Health care organizations need to ensure that:
– Policies are in place to guide interdisciplinary care and all health professionals are aware of them – Health professionals act according to the standards of practice of their professions and comply with their respective regulatory colleges
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Recommendations for Health Care Organizations (Cont’d)
– They have malpractice liability insurance that covers them and their employees – All professionals have appropriate malpractice liability/insurance protection (this should be reinforced during annual performance reviews) – Video
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Legal Considerations
- Existing case law suggests that courts
recognize the critical importance of a team approach and the need for professionals to rely on each other for care provision
- Courts are likely to continue to assess
standard of care on an individual basis and would be unlikely to apply a standard
- f care that exceeds the health
professional’s scope of practice
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Concluding Remarks
- IDC brings some liability risks for health
professionals and health care
- rganizations
- However, these risks pose no significant
barriers as they can be controlled with straightforward precautions
- Liability concerns should not deter
participation in IDC practices
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