Russ Pride, MA, CPHRM

Russ has been a Healthcare Risk Consultant with Princeton Insurance for the past 15 years.  He has forged working relationships with insured physicians and dentists to promote patient safety initiatives that reduce risk exposures in medical and dental office practice settings with the added benefit of increasing patient satisfaction with the services provided.

A Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM) through the American Hospital Association since 2001, Russ maintains active memberships with the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), the New Jersey Society for Healthcare Risk Managers (SHCRMNJ), and the Philadelphia Area Society of Healthcare Risk Managers (PASHRM). 

Russ has been instrumental in developing the Dental Office Practice Toolkit for Princeton insureds.  The toolkit includes guidelines for identifying and mitigating risks, sample letters, customizable forms, and other resources to assist the doctor and practice staff in handling routine and not-so-routine matters.  He is a contributor to Princeton’s Risk Review and Risk Alert – authoring articles on timely dental issues, such as use of Cone Beam CT in the dental office, and risks associated with cosmetic dentistry.

He is a faculty member of the Institute for Healthcare Communication (IHC) - based in New Haven, CT - conducting workshops in Clinician-Patient Communication.  A clinician’s communication skills establish the tone of the provider-patient relationship and influence a patient’s perceptions with respect to quality of care received.  A negative impression regarding that care has motivated some patients to pursue a claim of negligence or malpractice.  Research findings support the premise that clinicians with effective communication skills seldom get sued. 

Analysis of closed dental claims - aggregating data to (1) develop an overview of primary allegations and leading risk management issues and (2) identify trends - enables Russ to deliver a proactive Risk Management/Patient Safety presentation for dentists.

Dental risk management programs have included:

• UMDNJ Oral Surgery Residents’ program (April, 2013; April, 2012; February, 2012)
• Garden State Periodontists’ Study Group, Annual Conference (September, 2012)
• UMDNJ Dental Continuing Education Division, Dental Implant/MAXI course (June 2012)
• NJ Association of Orthodontists Annual Conference (April, 2011)
• Union County Dental Study Group (March 2011)