Risk Management
Mindy Malecki, JD, MS
Risk Management and Legal Consultant
Melinda Malecki is a corporate attorney with 17 years of corporate and regulatory experience and 20 years in the Healthcare Risk Management field. She provides legal counsel and risk management services for hospitals and healthcare organizations, continuing care facilities, community healthcare centers, psychiatric hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers.
Ms. Malecki began her career as a risk manager at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, in 1988. She became the Director of Risk Management and Legal Services at West Suburban Medical Center, Oak Park, in 1991 and later became the Medical Center's General Counsel. While working for West Suburban, Ms. Malecki provided all legal services to the Medical Center's administration and staff. She also functioned as the Medical Center's Corporate Compliance and Privacy Officer. She directed all insurance purchasing and significantly reduced the Medical Center's financial exposure due to liability insurance expenses. She began the private practice of law in 2000.
Ms. Malecki has extensive experience in the area of physician representation, including sales and purchases of practices, contract negotiations and complex corporate disputes. Her work as a hospital attorney benefits her physician clients in dealing with such matters as medical staff issues and contractual negotiations.
One of Ms. Malecki’s strongest skills is handling complex risk management issues for healthcare organizations in a self-insured environment. She is frequently retained to create or redesign a risk management function / program for facilities that need to pass an accreditation or are at risk of losing insurance coverage.
She is a frequent presenter on several “how to” topics including Risk Management, Documentation, Peer Review and Contract Negotiation. She has been published in the Journal of the Illinois Bar Association and featured in Business Insurance. Ms. Malecki serves on various boards, including the PCC Community Wellness Center Board in Oak Park, Illinois. In 1999, she founded a nonprofit organization called “Clients First,” which was dedicated to fostering quality legal representation in the area of Family Law. She is a past president of the Health Care Risk Management Society of Metropolitan Chicago. Ms. Malecki received a B.A. degree in Communication Arts from Loyola University, Chicago, in 1979, and a J.D. from the John Marshall Law School, Chicago, in 1992 and an M.S. in Organization Management from Dominican University, River Forest, in 2007.