As more and more health care is provided in the ambulatory setting, the data from malpractice carriers show that more and more lawsuits get their start in the same setting.

How are physician responsible when patients don't keep appointments or test results don't come back? Guest commentator John Cassidy, JD of Ficksman and Conley, Boston, MA.

Research helps surgeons find ways to communicate better to prevent mistakes before, during, and after surgery.

Fetal monitor strips, family history forms, and other non-medical record documents need to be preserved.

Joint Commission pushes new standards for reconciling lists and dosage of medications as patients change settings.

During the CRICO Surgical Summit in Boston, presenters and attendees explored the complexity of disclosure and apology. Panelist Philip Murray shared his perspective from 30 years as an active trial lawyer, and explained his support for open disclosure of adverse events—with some caveats.

A Q and A with Jack Mc Carthy, president of Harvard's self-insurance medical malpractice company about guidelines, simulators, and the future of patient safety.

New research underscores the need, effectiveness of formalizing sign-out and discharge summary processes.

Boston attorney Ted Mahoney tells obstetricians that a few notes about evaluating the pelvis before and during labor, and describing shoulder dystocia maneuvers will improve their chances if a lawsuit results from Erb's Palsy.

Part 3 of an address by best-selling author and Harvard Professor of Medicine Jerome Groopman to a patient safety symposium in Cambridge about the cognitive processes that lead physicians to make an incorrect diagnosis. Part 1 reviewed the ways physicians seek and process information on their way to making correct and incorrect diagnoses. Part 2 involved how how thinking errors occur. Part 3 looks at how to apply this knowledge to improving diagnoses in medical practice.