Covering the professional liability of medical malpractice for nurses and healthcare workers requires specialized knowledge in a field that’s shifting from hospitals to homes.
It’s a litigious market segment involving sensitive families reacting to unexpected outcomes of medical procedures, and in some cases unexpected deaths.
Nearly 75% of claims against pharmacists and other healthcare workers were based on the administering of a wrong drug or a wrong dosage according to David Griffiths, the senior vice president of the
Nurses Service Organization (NSO).
Griffiths quoted one of the many claims reports the NSO and the Healthcare Providers Service Organization (HPSO), both arms of
Aon Affinity Healthcare, publish as a an educational, risk management tool for frontline healthcare workers.
“Your typical broker doesn’t have the specialized knowledge in this specific area,” Griffiths said.
Understanding the difference in the setting’s effect on risk exposures is one part of healthcare workers’ liability.
In an emergency room, the high-paced, high volume flow of patients in critical conditions colors the exposures, while having a large team around the clock helps dampen the possibility of something going wrong.
While nurses or personal support workers in elder care roles face less of an immediate threat, a single nurse could shoulder responsibility for an entire floor, or even a building.
Patient falls are a big exposure, according to Griffiths.
“In our study, the E.R. claims represented 10.6% of all of the claims closed (against nurses), however the patient’s home actually represented 12.6%,” Griffiths said.
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“You would not think that if we go back 10 years ago, but as healthcare has changed and more activity is pushed out to the home, we’re seeing a greater number of claims come in from the patient’s home.”
Despite the claims figures, Michael Loughran, the president of Aon Affinity Healthcare, said payouts weren’t happening left, right and centre.
“Almost half, if not more, of the malpractice claims that we manage are able to be resolved without indemnity payment to the injured third party,” Loughran said.
“Ultimately we’re able to secure the optimal outcome for our client and show there was no negligence on their behalf.”
Because of the extensive range of both professions and settings Aon Affinity Healthcare covers, from social workers to optometrists, the risk exposures are also quite diverse.
“Within nurses, unexpected death is probably the most oft-cited reason for allegation of malpractice - for example a total knee replacement and the patient doesn’t come home, it’s not part of the natural progression of their disease or diagnosis,” Loughran said.
“That would be very different for a physical therapist where the most common injury is re-injury, for example, someone had rotator cuff surgery and the physical therapist is working with them on the rotator cuff and it tears again.”
Loughran advised brokers look for providers who bring awareness in a complex space.
“Professional liability is clearly a specialized product,” Loughran said.
“They (brokers) want to ensure that they’re securing coverage that offers a depth of experience in managing these kinds of claims, which provides contemporary coverage that really responds to the contemporary needs of these professions, and that’s priced fairly.”
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