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Implementation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)

By Beth Graham - September 24, 2010

by Holly Hayes In his book, Beyond Neutrality, Bernard Mayer says, “Conflict resolution professionals are not significantly involved in the major conflicts of our times. Many conflict resolution practitioners play useful but essentially marginal roles in large-scale public conflicts… we are not involved at the center of the conflict or decision-making processes.” This week, we posted about “clinical integration” or the creation of Accountable Car

Mediation Used in Health Care Labor Relations

By Beth Graham - September 16, 2010

by Holly Hayes When we saw this link on mediate.com about nurses requesting mediation to achieve safe staffing levels, we wondered where else mediation was being requested in healthcare conflict. A search found that in September, mediation was used, but failed, between the Minnesota Nurses Association and St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, MN. A nurses’ union in New Jersey requested mediation in July for their negotiations with hospital m

Article | Less than Half of Miami-Dade County Homeowners Comply With Court Ordered Foreclosure Mediation

By Beth Graham - September 13, 2010

In January, the Florida Supreme Court ordered mediation on all home foreclosure cases. According to Miami Today, less than half of homeowners in Miami-Dade County have complied with state-mandated mediation since January. Miami-Dade County is one of three Florida counties that ran a managed mediation pilot program prior to the state-mandated mediation order. The Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program administered by the non-profit Collins Center

How Healthcare Staff Can Impact Quality

By Holly Hayes - September 10, 2010

by Holly Hayes Our good friend, Don Philbin, sent us this link to a Harvard Business School article about “Turning Employees Into Problem Solvers” in healthcare. The article looks specifically at incident-reporting systems in hospitals and, rightly so, suggests that any system used to report and track incidents in healthcare should contribute to the implementation of actions to correct for those incidents resulting in higher quality c

Physician Survey Reports: 4.5% of Medical Liability Cases Resolved by ADR

By Holly Hayes - August 27, 2010

By Holly Hayes An August American Medical Association (AMA) survey of 5,825 physicians illustrates a need for medical liability state and federal reforms. Survey responses indicated: 42.2% of physicians were sued, with 22.4% sued twice or more. Rates varied by specialty, but general surgeons and obstetrician-gynecologists were most likely to be sued (69.2%). Family physicians and general internists had similar rates (38.9% and 34%). Pediatricians

US MSHA Unveils Pilot Mediation Program

By Victoria VanBuren - August 26, 2010

Platts reports that the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) just launched a pilot mediation program. Here are the details: Washington (Platts)–20Aug2010/540 pm EDT/2140 GMT US mine safety regulators plan to revert to a speedier mediation process during a 90-day test period starting later this month in an effort to reduce the number of citations appealed by operators. The Mine Safety and Health Administration said Friday it pla

U.S. Arbitration and Mediation Legislative Update

By Victoria VanBuren - August 9, 2010

The following bills relating to alternative dispute resolution were introduced by the 111st U.S. Congress. The session will last from January 3, 2009 until January 3, 2011. Click on the bill number to read its text and on the status link to find the bill’s most recent legislative action. Stay tuned to Disputing for more legislative updates! Bills that passed: The Agricultural Credit Act of 2009 would reauthorize state agricultural mediation progr

Positive Results of Conflict

By Holly Hayes - July 27, 2010

By Holly Hayes In May, we wrote about Dr. Donde Plowman’s presentation in Austin where she spoke about the opportunity leaders have to create organizations where innovation can occur. One aspect of innovation in organizations, she believes, is the presence of conflict. So often, leaders are responsible for reducing conflict, but Dr. Plowman argues, conflict often results in innovation. She states, perhaps conflict in the organization means

GUEST-POST PART X | Questions Clients Have about Mediation: Is There a Recipe for a Successful Mediation?

By Victoria VanBuren - July 26, 2010

By Kent B. Scott and Cody W. Wilson The success of mediation is mainly determined by the parties. It is their process and they are in control of the ultimate result. While there is no guarantee that any mediation will succeed, there are some common elements found in successful mediations: The mediator selected by the parties had the skills, knowledge and style (i.e., evaluative or facilitative) that fit the dispute and personalities involved in t

Why Isn’t ADR More Popular? A Report from Harvard

By Holly Hayes - July 20, 2010

The article below was published this week on the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School website. Many scholars have noted that the business community would greatly benefit from third-party dispute resolution services. JThe authors note that disputants use arbitration and mediation less frequently than their preferences on surveys would predict and than rational parties would.