ABFM Safety and Compliance 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A patient is prescribed warfarin and a new antibiotic. Which antibiotic class most commonly requires INR monitoring due to drug interaction?
- Macrolides (Correct answer)
- Penicillins
- Aminoglycosides
- Tetracyclines
Correct answer: Macrolides
Macrolides inhibit CYP2C9 and can significantly increase warfarin levels, requiring close INR monitoring.
Question 2: Under HIPAA, which of the following is considered a permissible disclosure of protected health information (PHI) without patient authorization?
- Sharing records with the patient's employer
- Reporting a gunshot wound to law enforcement (Correct answer)
- Providing records to a patient's attorney
- Disclosing records to a patient's spouse
Correct answer: Reporting a gunshot wound to law enforcement
HIPAA permits disclosure to law enforcement for reporting certain injuries like gunshot wounds as required by law.
Question 3: A physician discovers a medication error that reached the patient but caused no harm. What is the most appropriate next step?
- Document it only in the physician's personal notes
- File an incident report and disclose the error to the patient (Correct answer)
- Correct the chart and monitor the patient without disclosure
- Notify the hospital administrator only
Correct answer: File an incident report and disclose the error to the patient
Transparency requires disclosing errors to patients even when no harm occurred, and incident reporting supports system safety improvement.
Question 4: Which federal law primarily governs workplace safety standards in medical offices?
- HIPAA
- OSHA (Correct answer)
- EMTALA
- CLIA
Correct answer: OSHA
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) sets and enforces workplace safety standards, including bloodborne pathogen regulations in medical settings.
Question 5: A physician prescribes opioids for chronic pain. Which practice best reduces diversion risk while maintaining patient care?
- Prescribing the maximum allowed dose to prevent return visits
- Checking the PDMP before each opioid prescription (Correct answer)
- Avoiding written treatment agreements to maintain trust
- Prescribing only 30-day supplies without monitoring
Correct answer: Checking the PDMP before each opioid prescription
Checking the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) before prescribing opioids helps identify patients obtaining controlled substances from multiple providers.
Question 6: Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a hospital emergency department must:
- Treat only patients with insurance coverage
- Provide a medical screening exam to all patients regardless of ability to pay (Correct answer)
- Transfer unstable patients when beds are unavailable
- Collect payment before initiating emergency treatment
Correct answer: Provide a medical screening exam to all patients regardless of ability to pay
EMTALA requires that all patients presenting to an emergency department receive a medical screening examination regardless of their ability to pay.
Question 7: When performing a hand-off to a covering physician, which communication tool is most evidence-based for reducing errors?
- Verbal-only report to save time
- SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) (Correct answer)
- Written note reviewed only by the receiving physician
- Page message with patient name and room number
Correct answer: SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation)
SBAR is a structured communication framework proven to reduce errors during patient hand-offs by ensuring critical information is conveyed systematically.
ABFM Safety and Compliance 2
A patient is prescribed warfarin and a new antibiotic.
Which antibiotic class most commonly requires INR monitoring due to drug interaction?