Preventing Medical Errors in Therapy Practice - Live Webinar
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Course Introduction
I heard a definition of therapy on a podcast recently that has stuck with me: using your knowledge, to the best of your ability, to help someone—and not doing any harm.
Almost everything we do on this podcast is in service of the first half. We help you expand your knowledge and put it into practice.
But “do no harm” is just as core to therapy. And the vast majority of harm in health care isn’t intentional. It’s an error. So we’re dedicating a full episode to it.
We’ll talk about errors as they show up in therapy practice: a fall, a missed safety red flag, a handoff where the important thing didn’t get said, a medication side effect we read as something else.
Alyson Stover, an OT with a juris doctorate, is back for this 2-hour course. We’ll start with root-cause analysis: how to look at an error as a system problem rather than a blame problem, and how to run that analysis on something that happened in your own practice.
From there, we’ll cover the error reduction and prevention strategies with the best evidence behind them, what a culture of patient safety looks like on a therapy caseload, and the indications and contraindications we’re responsible for recognizing, including the medications our clients take and the side effects that change what’s safe to do in a session. Along the way, Alyson will connect each of these to what Florida law expects of us when something does go wrong, from documentation to the duty to notify a patient.
We’ll draw our examples from across occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and mental health practice, because the errors we see overlap.
If you practice in Florida, this course is built around the elements Florida OT requires in a two-hour medical errors course: root-cause analysis, error reduction and prevention, patient safety, and indications and contraindications including medication and side effects.
OT Potential is listed by the Florida Board of Occupational Therapy as a Rule/Statute Approved Provider (CE Broker tracking #50-33236). We are currently seeking approval from Florida’s physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and mental health boards, and we’ll update this page as those come in. Until then, please don’t count on this course to satisfy those boards’ medical errors requirement.
If you practice anywhere else, the content applies just as well. Medical errors don’t stop at the state line, and the habits that prevent them belong in every practice.
Bring your questions. We’ll hold time for live Q&A.
Contact Hours (CEUs/PDUs)
2 Contact Hours. Released online from Aurora, NE.
This course was designed to meet your continuing education requirements
We designed our courses to meet the requirements for “online” and “independent/self-study” courses. To verify the requirements from your specific state (within the U.S.), check out OT Continuing Education Requirements. If you are outside of the United States and don't see requirements for your specific location on that page, please contact us.
OT Potential courses are presented as live webinars, then released on-demand video and audio via the OT Potential Podcast. Attendance in the live webinar will be indicated on your certificate. Learn more about how our courses help meet live webinar requirements, and OT CEU requirements overall.
We are proud to be an AOTA Approved Provider and to meet the requirements for your NBCOT renewal.
Instructional Methods, Registration, Special Needs Requests, Cancellation Policy
This course is an independent/self-study course delivered via podcast on one or more of the following platforms: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, & Google Play.
If you need accommodations to take this course, please contact us and we will address your needs on an individual basis.
If we cancel a promoted course, event, live stream, or any other paid CEU offering prior to release, and you subscribe explicitly for said offering, you are eligible for a full refund if you did not complete and earn any other CEU quizzes or certificates during your subscription.
If a live webinar is cancelled that you signed up for, our system will automatically generate an email to you and if possible, we will inform you of the rescheduled date. Our most current webinar schedule will be found here.
Audience / Education Level & Course Completion Requirements
Our target audience is therapy professionals who are looking to learn more about this topic. The educational level is introductory. In order to receive a certificate for this course, you must first participate in the podcast/webinar in its entirety. Then, you will need to take the quiz that will accompany the course and earn 75% or higher. If you pass, a PDF certificate will be made available to you via email and download. Quizzes for live (distance learning–interactive) webinars must be completed within 3 days of completing the webinar.
Speakers
A childhood family trauma introduced Alyson to the power of occupational therapy. A subsequent lifetime of study and practice convinced her that consumer advocacy was every bit as essential as her technical practice of occupational therapy. Now, Alyson and her husband own a private outpatient pediatric practice in a rural county in Pennsylvania and co-founded a non-profit organization that uses occupation to address community, societal and population needs. She currently serves as the Director of Clinical Services and continues to practice as an occupational therapist at Capable Kids and lead clinical consultant for Capable Families. Alyson's areas of expertise include pediatrics and holistic, occupation-centric approaches to substance misuse and trauma. Additionally she consults in various capacities, including clinical as well as systems, bringing expert program development knowledge, change at the micro, meso, and macro levels, sustainability, and business resilience/staff wellness. Alyson also is committed to promotion of occupational therapy through grassroots advocacy initiatives and development of community collaborations to support community wellness. She has partnered with many organizations in her hometown to implement innovative, interdisciplinary programs through community grant funding and state funds. She is AOTA Board Certified in Pediatrics. Additionally, Alyson is an associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh where she also obtained her juris doctorate in law with a post-graduate certificate in health law. Her interests include using occupational therapy as a powerful driving-force for larger health care change, advancing occupational therapy’s national and global relevance and occupational therapy’s role as a leader in policy development and implementation. Alyson is humbled and honored to serve as the President of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), and is eager to hear the voices of all members of the occupational therapy community.
Sarah Lyon, OTR/L, is the CEO of OT Potential. Sarah earned her BA from St. Olaf College and her master’s degree in occupational therapy from New York University. Her diverse clinical background spans multiple settings, including critical access, acute trauma, and state inpatient psychiatric hospitals. In 2011, she founded OT Potential to fulfill the industry's need for reliable, high-quality occupational therapy resources and continuing education.
As a recognized content creator, Sarah has collaborated with top healthcare brands like VeryWell Health, WebPT, and MedBridge. She blends her clinical expertise with a talent for creating clear, action-oriented content that empowers practitioners to excel. Passionate about elevating the OT profession, she has been featured on numerous industry podcasts. Sarah ultimately returned to her roots, running OT Potential and raising her family in her hometown of Aurora, Nebraska.
