Please note that this course also offers 3.6 nursing contact hours through the Department of Nursing Education, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. To obtain a CEU certificate, please make sure your registration form indicates your RN degree.

In addition, this course is designed to meet the requirement for 3 hours of Risk Management credit in Massachusetts.

While the telephone can facilitate patient care, it can also be risky business for the patient and for the clinician. The most commonly cited injury in telephone related malpractice cases is death, usually as a result of delay in diagnosis. Between 1985 nd 2005, $78 M dollars were paid in 781 telephone medicine related claims. Internal medicine and family practice lead the list of specialties, followed by Ob-Gyn and Pediatrics. No specialty was immune. In contrast to the well-publicized in-hospital errors, these events occurred in the physician's office and involved ambulatory patients.

The goal of this telephone medicine course is to illustrate, using real-life case scenarios, potential areas of risk that can be eliminated or reduced to improve the outcome of clinical problems presented by patients over the phone.

NUMBER OF CREDIT HOURS: The Harvard Medical School designates this educational activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

COST: $60.00
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OVERALL LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. To reduce malpractice suits by improving the quality of care and service provided over the telephone in office-based practice.
2. To identify the areas of greatest risk in patient care.
3. To identify the key elements in providing the highest quality of telephone medicine.
4. To offer practical tips for practitioners in telephone medicine.

CLINICAL LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. To increase patient safety by reducing errors in telephone medicine.
2. To avoid delay in diagnosis.
3. To understand the role of protocols in telephone triage of medical problems presented over the telephone.
4. To illustrate risks by real-life clinical case scenarios where the telephone played an important role in the outcome.

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HARVEY P. KATZ, MD Course Director

Harvey P. Katz, M.D., is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Dr. Katz is the Director of the Primary Care Clerkship at the Harvard Medical School, and co-director of the HMS Primary Care Division. Dr. Katz is a pediatrician with a subspecialty in pediatric endocrinology, with residency training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and endocrine fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Katz has a long-standing interest in teaching and patient-clinician communication. He is author of Telephone Medicine: Triage and Training for Primary Care (FA Davis, 2001) and co-author of the online continuing education course, The Role of the Telephone in Clinical Medicine: Reducing Liability and Improving Care (www.rmfce.com). Dr. Katz is also deputy director of Pri-Med, the Harvard course in primary care which has enrolled over 150,000 attendees since its inception in Boston in 1985. DISCLOSURE:

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DIANE BOURQUE, MD Reviewer

Bio and Photo Coming Soon. DISCLOSURE:

HELEN K. DELICHATSIOS, MD Reviewer

Bio and Photo Coming Soon. DISCLOSURE:

HELEN LICHTWART, MD Reviewer

Bio and Photo Coming Soon. DISCLOSURE:

CAROL MORAN, MD Reviewer

Bio Coming Soon. DISCLOSURE:

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NUMBER OF CREDITS: 3 

Harvard Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Harvard Medical School designates this educational activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Upon completion of the course you will get a certificate via e-mail within 2 weeks.

Click the image to view a sample of the certificate

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