GAINESVILLE, Fla. (April 14, 2016) -
Brandon Peters, who mediates throughout the state with Upchurch Watson White & Max, recently has been named by the University of Florida Self-Insurance Program to a panel of presuit mediators for medical malpractice cases at six participating institutions.
Mediator Brandon Peters
Randall C. Jenkins, administrator of five of the six Florida Board of Governors' self-insurance programs, offers some
history, beginning with the J. Hillis Miller Health Center Self-Insurance Program, which dates to 1971 at UF. "It was one of the first, if not the first, of its kind in the United States and set a standard for liability protection in the academic health care setting."
Since then, "Florida has expanded the State University System’s health care education programs to virtually all areas in the Sunshine State. Self-Insurance Programs (SIPs) have been created by the Florida Board of Governors for the Florida State University College of Medicine, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Florida International University College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine and the University of South Florida Health Science Center, joining the Self-Insurance Program at the University of Florida Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses."
Mr. Peters says, "The mission of the presuit mediation panel is to assist in the negotiation of claims made by patients who believe they were injured by health care providers who participate in the self-insurance program. Unlike court proceedings, the mediation proceedings are both informal and voluntary. Mediation panelists are completely neutral as to the outcome of the underlying disputes and strictly impartial concerning the parties involved."
The programs are in place not only to provide protections to the Boards of Trustees of the universities for their colleges of medicine, but also for state health-care colleges and their student health-care programs. "All the self-insurance programs manage general and professional liability exposures arising from the educational, research, and clinical missions of their program participants," Mr. Jenkins says in his online message.
Dedication to patient safety also motivates the programs' operations, which include a popular health care provider lecture series and extensive medical-legal continuing education training through the Florida Academic Health Patient Safety Organization (FAH PSO) and the Academic Medical Center Patient Safety Organization (AMC PSO). "I invite you to take advantage of our convenient on-line (continuing medical education)-approved courses that are provided free of charge to our participants," Mr. Jenkins says. "Course topics include a two-hour mandatory medical error prevention program approved by the Florida Board of Medicine, as well as other important health care/legal topics confronted by Florida providers."
P R E S S R E L E A S E
Upchurch Watson White & Max
125 S. Palmetto Avenue
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
800-264-2622
Catherine Klasne (cklasne@uww-adr.com) |
For Immediate Release
