During the past three months the Florida Orthopaedic Risk Purchasing Group (FORPG) has continued its efforts to unite orthopaedic surgeons under a collective mission to improve patient safety and communications and promote effective risk management practices.
Some ten months into the program, the membership of the Florida Orthopaedic Society has responded with resounding approval. As of the start of August the FORPG represented almost 300 orthopaedic surgeons and is close to achieving its goal of 350 members in the first year of operation. With this core constituency of members, the leadership is pressing forward with the primary mission of the organization, improving our collective risk profile. During the Florida Orthopaedic Society (FOS) Annual Meeting, the FORPG hosted an educational session on Medical Error Prevention. The RPG Board of Directors has also scheduled a joint session with the FOS Board of Directors to focus on enhanced patient communications. This is a course developed jointly by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Bayer Institute for Health Care Communication, Inc. that will be recommended to RPG members in the future. In addition, the organization has formed committees in the areas of Risk Management and Claims Review that will be working directly with the professionals at First Professionals Insurance Company, Inc. (FPIC) to dissect the practice of orthopaedics to identify areas of patient safety and care that may be enhanced. Through the creation of this committee structure the RPG hopes to take advantage of the vast experience of the staff and leadership at FPIC coupled with the scientific knowledge and expertise of orthopaedic surgeons across the state. Just ten months into the experiment it is clear that the Florida Orthopaedic Risk Purchasing Group is starting to fulfill the promise of its founders. While the significant savings offered by the program continues to attract initial interest, the leadership hopes that this enhanced focus on patient safety will pay dividends for our members and patients for years to come.
