Preferred Physicians Medical

Reputation is one of an anesthesiologist’s most valuable practice assets. You can’t put a price tag on it or retrieve it once it’s lost. To protect your reputation, your anesthesia practice must select the right medical malpractice insurance carrier. Anesthesiologists don’t have to settle when making that choice. Preferred Physicians Medical (PPM) is the leading provider of medical malpractice insurance for anesthesiologists and their practices, with services tailored specifically for the specialty.

PPM is the nation’s only carrier insuring anesthesia practices exclusively. This specialty approach provides PPM with unique insights into anesthesia loss trends, culled from its extensive database of adverse anesthesia outcomes. This claims intelligence helps PPM identify developing practice concerns long before such trends become evident to individual practitioners, practice groups and other insurance carriers. PPM then conveys information to its policyholders, allowing them to adjust their practices, improve patient safety and lessen their own vulnerability to claims.

Proactive Patient Safety and Risk Management

PPM’s anesthesia expertise is highlighted by our patient safety and risk management efforts. PPM maintains a substantial database of loss outcomes with over 13,000 adverse anesthesia events reported to us. This database is used to identify areas of risk, monitor developing loss trends and provide anesthesia practices with anesthesia-specific risk management strategies/advice that are practical to implement and protect practices before problems surface.

PPM’s anesthesia-specific risk management newsletter, Anesthesia & the Law.

PPM disseminates actionable insights in three ways: its proprietary, attorney-authored anesthesia risk management newsletter, Anesthesia & the Law (also available to policyholders on a secure area of the PPM website, www.ppmrrg.com); through live, on-site anesthesia-specific risk management seminars; and through speaking at various anesthesia conferences throughout America. Since 2002, PPM’s in-house attorneys have conducted over 350 seminars for anesthesia practices on-site or at educational seminars spanning the country.

According to Brian Thomas, PPM’s Vice President – Risk Management, “Our in-house attorneys have conducted over 300 live, on-site seminars since 2004, dispensing advice based on our database findings and the unique insights gained from investigating over 13,000 adverse anesthesia outcomes reported by our policyholders. Both anesthesiologists and certified registered nurse anesthetists respond positively to the information provided. Since our attorneys specialize in defending anesthesia claims, they communicate effectively with anesthesia providers. Given their expertise and experience, many anesthesia practices embrace the ‘best practice’ protocols we recommend.”

Examples of seminar topics include:

• Prevention and management of intraoperative fires
• Distractions in the operating room (OR)
• Infections from the reuse of single-dose vials
• Securing narcotics and medication in the OR
• Top 10 anesthesia claims and how to avoid them

History of Collaboration With ASA and APSF

“Anesthesia loss trends and ‘best practice’ protocols are a moving target. PPM’s job is to stay ahead of the trends and help our policyholders improve patient safety and reduce the adverse outcomes,” said Wade Willard, PPM’s Vice President – Claims, who recalled that just a few years ago distractions in the OR were an emerging issue. “We spotted this trend very early, investigated the source of these issues, and collaborated with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF). PPM was one of the first organizations to provide anesthesia practices with concrete, practical advice for addressing distractions and reducing the risk of an adverse outcome.”

Steven R. Sanford, PPM’s president and CEO, has served as an active board member of the APSF for the past seven years, and has been a member of the Executive Committee for the past five years. PPM’s focus on patient safety parallels that of the foundation. PPM also collaborates with the ASA Closed Claims Committee and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. “We’re proud to collaborate with these professional organizations in identifying and closing safety gaps, and improving the safety of the practice of anesthesiology,” Mr. Sanford said.

Don’t Settle.

PPM is physician-focused. Its policyholders enjoy a “right of consent” prior to any claim being settled on their behalf. PPM values its policyholders’ voices in the resolution of litigation. Given PPM’s physician focus, policyholder interests are always front and center. Anesthesia expertise, active participation in the claims process and aggressive defense of sound medical care are three major reasons PPM has enjoyed an historic 93% retention rate among its policyholders.

PPM’s unique anesthesia focus, combined with a proactive patient safety and risk management strategy, provides its policyholders with peace of mind and the knowledge they do not have to settle for less than the best medical malpractice insurance protection.

This corporate profile was reviewed and approved by Preferred Physicians Medical.

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