Medical Errors: Risk management in Psychotherapy

The past two years during the COVID pandemic has created situations that may inadvertently result in unanticipated medical errors. Using the standard model for analyzing “root cause analysis” to identify active and latent systemic errors, we will look at some of these types of problems. Our presentation avoids individual blame but rather focuses on the problems with laws, rule, financial constraints, systemic racism, and diagnostic issues. We will deal with various aspects of record keeping for psychotherapists, newer telehealth and social media. A number of "high risk" areas will be highlighted along with principles of risk management that can help avoid claims of negligence and malpractice.