About

Healthcare Law for Non Lawyers is a two day seminar that will give you a practical understanding of medico-legal issues and how they impact upon your healthcare practise.  Gain an understanding of legal requirements as they apply to medicines, know your obligations when things go wrong, deal effectively with health information and ensure practical compliance with consent requirements.

KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES:
• Understand the practical application and consequences of legal requirements relating to medicines
• Understand what to do when things go wrong and gain tools and techniques to manage professional obligations
• Know how to manage health information and understand the application of legal standards of clinical practice
• Understand the application to practice and the requirements of informed consent
• Gain the tools for management of tricky situations and end-of-life care

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Anyone involved with healthcare, who has an interest in medical, mental heath or privacy law including:
• Doctors
• Clinicians
• Nurses
• Documentation Staff
• Pharmacists
• Privacy Officers
• Mental Health Professionals
• Psychiatric Social Workers
• Doctors and Medical Staff
• Corrections Staff
• Caregivers
• Advocacy Groups

Training Methodology:
These workshops combine seminar sessions with case studies in an interactive learning exercise. All attendees will be provided with a workbook and a certificate of completion

Outline

Applying legal requirements relating to medicines to practice
• Prescribing Issues and Problems
• What is a legally valid prescription?
• Charting issues
• Phoned or faxed scripts
• Obligations of designated prescribers
• Issuing and acting under standing orders
• Use of unapproved medicines
• Approved medicines for unapproved uses
• Close control rules
• Prescribing for drug dependent individuals
• Changes to medicines legislation
• Permitted approaches to therapeutic products and complementary therapies
• Responsibility for prescribing errors
• Issues with internet medicine and e-prescribing

Managing professional obligations – what to do when things go wrong?
• Managing mistakes
• Handling complaints within your organisation
• Practical strategies to minimise risk
• Assessment and investigation procedures
• Competence reviews
• Responding to complaints
• Responsibility for an employee’s mistakes
• Organisational vs individual responsibility for errors
• Effective business structures to minimise risk and define responsibilities
• Constitutions, Shareholders Agreements and exit strategies

Managing health information and meeting legal requirements of clinical practice
• Application of the Health Information Privacy Code to everyday practice
• Obtaining patient histories
• Use of patient information within practices
• Sharing information with colleagues or others as part of clinical care
• Obligations to retain information
• Duty of care to patients
• Practical examples of extent of duties of health professional
• Limits on obligations
• Involvement of students in patient care

Applying requirements for informed consent to practice
• Duties of health professionals
• Consent to services
• Valid forms of consent
• Areas of Risk
• Paperwork, record keeping
• Capacity to consent
• Children and young people
• Treating without consent
• Rest home patients
    Refusal of consent
    End of life care
    Advance Directives
    Power of Attorney
    Do not resuscitate orders
    Withholding treatment

Facilitator

Dr Fiona McCrimmon

Barrister & Solicitor MBChB LLB (Hons) Honorary Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand

Dr McCrimmon is qualified in both medicine and law, and has specialised in healthcare law for the last fifteen years, both as an academic and in private practice.

Dr McCrimmon established McCrimmon Law eight years ago to provide specialist medico-legal and healthcare law services across New Zealand to healthcare professionals of all disciplines, providers, statutory bodies and other healthcare organisations.  This involves compliance advice, privacy concerns, regulatory and professional issues for doctors, pharmacists, midwives, dentists, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and for their businesses, societies, trusts and boards.

Dr McCrimmon also has extensive experience in corporate and commercial aspects of healthcare provision and is established as a specialist in this field.  She advises a significant number of businesses and organisations involved in the provision of health services including pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers, equity partners and investors.  

Dr McCrimmon is a regular speaker on health law and medico legal matters and also serves on a number of Committees in the health sector.

In-house Training