Has Anyone Ever USED Their Malpractice Insurance?

When you are sued, there is a discovery period where everyone comes clean about what insurance is available and who has it and the limits. Then....usually your employer's insurance will be primary and your private malpractice secondary. Most malpractice suits are settled by an agreement between the parties - few go to court. They do drag on though and on and on. It is incredibly stressful for everyone involved and the stress continues for the entire process.

By having malpractice insurance, you have an attorney in your corner who is only there to protect YOUR interests.

I really think you need to stop listening to the risk management people when it comes to malpractice insurance..they have a vested interest in making sure you don't have your own policy. Look at it this way, why do they spend so much time arguing against it? Obviously, they see it as some sort of threat.

I've only known a couple of people who have needed their insurance. But if you get NSO, it's $98 a year..that's less than $10 bucks a month and it covers you in many situations. It'll give you coverage if you ever get called before the BON..there's been cases of people getting summoned for nonsense claims due to someone seeking revenge. Sad, but it happens.

It's great that you appear to be a honest sincere person who wants to think the best of people. But sadly, even if you work in a hospital affiliated with a church, the fact is, the hospital and it's "minions"(ie administrators, CEOs etc) are looking out for their interests. Theirs, not the nurses, and in most cases not even the patients. I have seen this time and time again..they especially love trotting out the "we won't leave you hanging" line to the new RNs or new employees..tell that to the nurses and CRNA that almost had their licenses taken due to a mistake by the surgeon. They did everything they were supposed to, but like I said easier to go after a nurse than a surgeon. None of them had their own insurance-they had to pay all the legal fees.

You are also in a high risk specialty for lawsuits/calls to the BON..please, look after yourself and your career.

As with nearly any insurance policy (home, automobile, malpractice), there are bound to be some "weasel words" in the policy to refuse coverage in certain instances. In the case of malpractice policies, this would probably include stuff like willful malicious acts (i.e., let's push 600MEq of KCl & see what happens!).

I'm sorry, but you are just entirely wrong on this. They can always come after you if they feel you have been negligent. Insurance has absolutely nothing to do with the equation. You may be young and not have many assets yet, but you do have future earnings that can be tagged if the plaintiff prevails. What state are you in? I have worked for a state-owned hospital in CA and you better believe they were sued quite regularly.

This is exactly why you need insurance. My DH is an insurance defense attorney (hired by an insurance company to defend policy-holders when they are sued). He charges between $150 and $200 and hour--this includes reading e-mails, answering phone calls, etc. At around $100 a year, the malpractice insurance is a bargain for the representation alone.

People get sued for the most stupid of things. You need an attorney to represent you even if you did nothing wrong.

That's why you should always read your policy when you receive it. I agree 100%.

[quote=NursingtheHeart;3703583] They have a risk management team who has our best interest at heart. quote]


If by "our", you mean the big wigs of the hospital, then you are right! But if you mean nurses...any hospital will throw one under a bus to save themselves.

I wouldn't work a day w/o insurance.

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. I do tend to be a little naive, even though I am a psych nurse and worked at our state prison prior to this job. I will certainly be getting nursing insurance, most likely through NSO. Thanks!!

I have heard that the hospital can sue you too to recoup their expenses. I have also heard that the malpractice that they have for you will only cover you if you are in the right, not if you screw up. I don't know that this is true, but I have always carried my own since back in my student days. Think of it this way, insurance is a gamble. The company is betting you won't get sued. You are betting you will. You put down your $89 premuim, they put down $1 million. Who has the most to lose? If you don't have the insurance and you get sued anyway- say goodbye to the house, the car, your IRA. I consulted a lawyer once and it was $200 just to walk in the door. Every hour beyond that had additional fees. What can you afford? Me- I'll take my annual premium please.

I also carry my own insurance and work at a hospital that will cover me if anything happens. It is a Magnet hospital, and everything is public-falls, etc. Someone had a good point that I talked to about the hospital backing you if something happens-they would rather settle and keep things out of court and back you up than to have some huge lawsuit that would detract people to coming to that hospital or make the hospital look bad. Risk management might be looking out for the hospital, but at where I work they also look out for the workers and patients. The hospital I work at even admits the things that have happened and made them look bad-a very public incident that happened where I work was nurses administering heparin to babies (it was one of the places that happened at) and some of those nurses still work for my hospital. My hospital does cover us if something like that were to happen, but just for my own peace of mind I carry my own insurance; I think its a personal decision that you need to make depending on where you work. If you are being put into situations where you dont feel like you are being a safe and effective nurse (too high of pt to nurse ratios, having to take care of overflow pts that you don't feel comfortable taking care of etc) then I think that is the time you need to either look for a new job or try and do something to change it by going to your CPC meetings. When we have incident reports filled out on mistakes we make, we dont get in trouble for them; they are reviewed by a board of our peers and tracked to see if the same thing is happening often. Our shift coordinators also talk to us to get our side of the story. When we see trends happening-lots of pt falls etc, at our unit CPC meetings we come up with solutions and ways we can change things to make it better. So, I personally think and believe that if I was named in a lawsuit my hospital would stand behind me, since it has with other workers at my hospital; I just carry my own insurance as a back up.