Mitigating Risk: Our Approach

You need to know where and how you may be at risk for a malpractice suit.

Our Risk Management team supports members to reduce their risk of exposure through consultation, member education, and targeted risk-management offerings. Depending on your specific needs, Physicians Insurance offers several options for identifying risk exposures:

  • Risk Consultation. An experienced member of the Risk Management team is available to provide members with personal, on-call risk-management advice, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, at (800) 962-1399. You may also submit questions via email to riskmanagement@phyins.com.
  • Risk Evaluation. Another place to start engaging with our Risk Management team is through a risk evaluation. With this evaluation, you have an interactive dialogue with one of our risk consultants to establish a high-level understanding of your risk-management opportunities and priorities.
  • Risk Assessment. As a possible next step, your practice may warrant a risk assessment. This is an in-depth analysis that includes leadership interviews, physical observation, and file reviews to provide a comprehensive report of potential risk exposures within your organization or practice. To learn whether your practice could benefit from this assessment, contact our Risk Management team.
  • Self-guided Risk Assessment Toolkit. Members can also independently assess areas of potential risk within their practice through a Self-guided Risk Assessment. This toolkit is intended to assess risks in the outpatient setting and includes an anonymous online questionnaire, a template for medical record audits, and downloadable tips for best practices.

    The first step is to complete the password-protected questionnaire at phyins.com/self-assessment (or medchoicerrg.com/self-assessment, if you have a MedChoice policy). Participation is completely anonymous, and you can complete the survey over time, starting and stopping to fit your schedule. Upon completion, you will have the opportunity to review the results, including identified risks and associated tips for best practices. The toolkit also includes “Outpatient Self-guided Risk Assessment Tips for Best Practice” and the “Self-guided Risk Assessment: Medical Record Review Template” for conducting your own medical record audit. (Due to the anonymous nature of the Self-guided Risk Assessment toolkit, we are only able to provide follow-up support if you contact us with the specific risk exposures you wish to address.)

While it is our priority to be proactive in identifying and addressing risk exposures, we also provide member support in response to incidents or claims activity.


Resources

The following are just a few of the additional resources to help reduce risk that are available to all our members at no additional cost (depending on your policy type):

Education at phyins.com/education or medchoicerrg.com/education. Libraries of online courses, available 24/7, across a wide array of topics and issues for providers and staff. Many of these courses offer CE credit.

RM Resource Library at phyins.com/resources or medchoicerrg.com/resources. Searchable and sortable libraries with articles, guidance, customizable sample forms and letters, and more. In our resource libraries, under “Additional Resources,” you can also access:

o Cyber Center. An online resource offering best practices, staff training, protocols, and more resources to improve your cyber security.

o HR Hero. An online portal offering handbooks, checklists, and staff training to reduce your risks related to Human Resources.