Good care. Good business.

When a harm event or unanticipated outcome occurs, the first step an organization should take is to report the event. Early reporting has many benefits—primarily, doing so introduces the four core services of HEAL®: Clinician Peer Support, risk consultation, communication assistance and an expert case review. These services provide benefits to your organization that will boost provider wellbeing, improve processes, strengthen relationships, and accelerate insights, all beginning with one easy step.

An unanticipated outcome serves an important purpose—it provides an opportunity for the organization to analyze what happened as objectively as possible, with help from their medical professional liability provider. With the HEAL® program, Constellation® conducts a thorough review of the harm event and identifies ways to improve processes. The goal is to reduce future harm events through best practices and tools and help from our team of risk experts.

HEAL® is about more than just managing potential harm events. The program prioritizes patient/resident safety, provides learning opportunities, and helps to foster an accountable culture. These are ambitious goals! There’s a great deal to be gained by committing to culture change – it can help reduce harm events and lessen the negative impacts when they do occur.

Communication is critical in the wake of a harm event. How clinicians and care team members react and respond determines whether we preserve trust, communicate, learn and improve. Clinicians may not know what they can say, and patients/residents may feel frustrated as a result of silence. At Constellation®, our team is here to support clinicians through communication assistance, clinician peer support, risk consultation and expert case reviews… all part of our HEAL℠ program.

After a harm event occurs, clinicians oftentimes question whether or not the care they provided was up to standard. More often than not, our external expert review determines that care was appropriate. Early case reviews can settle anxious nerves and help provide peace of mind for policyholders. Listen along to hear our team discuss additional benefits.

Open and honest communication between the care team, the patient and the family is critical for all parties to move forward after a harm event occurs. This episode explores how the HEAL℠ program’s communication coaching services can guide caregivers and their teams through communication challenges in ways that help everyone reach healing and resolution. Listen along to learn more.

Clinicians involved in patient harm events often struggle with reduced confidence, shame, distracted thoughts and distressing emotions that can interfere with their productivity and ability to continue providing safe, high-quality care to their patients. Constellation’s Clinician Peer Support Program (CPSP) offers compassionate, experienced peers who can assist them with their own recovery. In this episode, CPSP consultant Dr. Loie Lenarz discusses the value of peer support and shares stories of her long experience guiding clinicians through their challenging journeys.

This episode reveals the stark contrast between a patient harm event handled with a “deny and defend” approach and one handled with HEAL’s more holistic model. Listen in and hear the greater potential for positive outcomes when an organization’s MPL carrier sees itself as part of the health care experience rather than the litigation experience.

Greater transparency and more open communication are goals in most health care organizations. These goals are even more important when things go wrong, especially when it comes to learning from mistakes and improving future care. Learn more about how—and why—HEAL(sm) supports honest conversations and sharing of information.

When patients are harmed in health care, the event often creates significant and lasting ripple effects on care providers and their organizations. Constellation created HEAL(sm) to help them move beyond the “deny and defend” model that has driven risk management practices for decades. Listen in to find out how HEAL emerged as a healthier alternative and how it helps care teams act promptly and effectively after patient harm events to achieve meaningful resolution.

The stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic are being heavily felt in all areas of health care, but especially in the long-term care industry. Fewer resources and even higher expectations for care delivery are forcing clinicians to do more now than ever before. Tune in to hear our thoughts on encouraging openness and inclusivity to foster success in your organizations.

Communicating with patients can be challenging in the best of times. Communication during a pandemic is even more so. When information is missing, we know that people tend to fill in the blanks. Learn how Constellation promotes communicating with patients and their loved ones before and after a harm event occurs and how this communication can help all parties heal.

Medical workers have a very high level of public good will right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, emboldening them to continue to provide excellent care for patients. This good care starts with frequent communication with patients especially after a harm event occurs. Learn how Constellation promotes leadership support and how that support impacts care.

As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches out, clinicians may be asked to do work in departments where they’ve never worked before. Further worries like access to PPE, exposure to COVID-19, and layoffs can compound their fears. Listen along as Constellation discusses the support of health care leaders and their efforts to provide channels for continuous communication.

Constellation wants our customers to practice medicine with the reassurance of knowing that we will not only defend their good medicine but that we will support them in the case of a patient harm event. Reporting a patient harm event early gives us the opportunity to offer our customers a direct line of communication with a peer who is there to offer collegial support, to listen and affirm their feelings, and to ask questions about self-care and coping. Listen to learn more about our Clinician Peer Support program.

Constellation’s purpose is to champion those who devote their lives to health care…to the essential work of enhancing health—and life. We provide care for our caregivers through coverage, advice, resources, clinician peer support and more. Learn more about how we are supporting our front-line medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic so they can continue to fulfill their dream to help, heal and serve.