Kentucky Injury Law Blog

If you have handled medical malpractice cases in and around Kentucky you have no doubt practiced a case with Kirsten Daniel. She spent the last 8 years defending doctors and hospitals in Kentucky medical malpractice cases and gained extensive trial experience in the process. I am pleased and proud to say that she recently made the switch from the dark side and joined our firm.

On our way to meet with clients yesterday, Kirsten and I started talking about Sentinel Event and Peer Review materials and their importance in med mal litigation. She informed me that many plaintiff's lawyers don't even request Sentinel Event or Peer Review materials, which came as a big surprise to me. I can only assume this is because these lawyers don't know about the JCAHO's Sentinel Event policy. And that is a big problem, as these materials often contain a wealth of information which is not discoverable by any other means.

It is essential that any lawyer handling medical malpractice cases have a firm grasp of Sentinel Event, Root Cause Analysis and Peer Review procedures. The JCAHO website is a great place to start educating yourself on the subject.

Sentinel Event Links

Joint Commission Sentinel Event Main Page

Sentinel Event Policy and Procedures - Joint Commission

Joint Commission website search for "Sentinel Event"

JCAHO Sentinel Event Flow Chart

Here are two books which should be in the library of any medical malpractice lawyer:

Sentinel Events: Evaluating Cause and Planning Improvement, Second Edition

Root Cause Analysis in Health Care: Tools and Techniques, Third Edition