ADVANCED PRACTICE CLINICIANS: RISK MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Course overview

The face of healthcare is changing, and the new world of healthcare will undoubtedly include ever greater roles for Advanced Practice Clinicians (APC) to play. APCs need to understand their scope of practice in order to function effectively, including the performance of tasks reserved for other providers. Physicians and APCs need to appreciate what is required by supervision and collaboration requirements to ensure patient safety and reduce the risk of liability. Although there are risk issues inherent in the practices of all APCs, this activity will deal with the issues that are specific to PAs and NPs. In this activity, we discuss the differences between the practices of NPs and PAs. In addition, using case reviews, we will discuss the various types of liability issues APCs and their supervising or collaborating physicians face; supervision and collaboration of ACPs; the standard of care for an ACP; and errors related to diagnosis that lead to malpractice claims against ACPs. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: interpret the requirements for supervision of and collaboration with APCs; appraise the standards of care for their practices; and summarize the underlying processes that lead to medical errors.