SPECIAL FOCUS:
Preventing Errors in Your Practice

Prescription Writing to Maximize Patient Safety
Peter G. Teichman, MD, MPA, and Anne E. Caffee, PharmD, BCPS
These tips can help you avoid two important causes of prescription error.

Reducing Risks for Patients Receiving Warfarin
Jennifer Bush
These practices built safety into their systems for managing oral anticoagulation therapy.

Four Principles for Better Test-Result Tracking
Brandi White
Lost or misfiled test results can delay needed care. Here's how to prevent this common error in office-based practice.

EDITORIAL
Can We Avoid Errors in Family Practice?
Marc L. Rivo, MD, MPH

GETTING PAID
An Easy Way to Analyze E/M Coding for Group Practices
Reed Tinsley, CPA
This simple spreadsheet can reveal problems in your coding performance.

CODING & DOCUMENTATION
Answers to Your Questions
Kent J. Moore
ER procedures and admission • Billing for nursing home work • Removing a nuchal lipoma

MONITOR

AAFP establishes patient safety center • Two patient safety bills introduced in Congress • Documentation guidelines: a thing of the past?

IMPROVING PATIENT CARE
The Power of Two: Improving Patient Safety Through Better Physician-Patient Communication
Gregg Meyer, MD, and Louise Arnheim, MPA

Helping patients become more informed and involved in their care could be your best strategy for reducing medical errors.

PRACTICE DIARY
Sanford J. Brown, MD
If it walks like a duck • Statements and stickers

ASK FPM
When patients request their records • Reasonable bad debt • Including the correct diagnosis on a claim

BALANCING ACT
When Medical Errors Hit Home
Deborah S. McPherson, MD
Her father's illness brought this FP face-to-face with the potential price of medical mistakes.