A small victory for patient safety has come in west Texas, where a jury took less than an hour to acquit Anne Mitchell, a nurse who had been indicted on felony charges for reporting a doctor to the state medical board whom she thought was endangering patients with poor care. The charge against Ms. Mitchell….
Continue ReadingArchives for February 2010
Big Profits in Cutting Corners on Quality for Owners of Long-Term Care Hospitals
The handsome silver-haired doctor in the long white coat, standing at the nurse’s station in a photograph accompanying a New York Times story, is the national medical director for a chain of for-profit long-term care hospitals. But he puts in barely ten hours a week for Select Medical Corporation, which has no physicians in its….
Continue ReadingFDA Has New Initiative on Excessive Radiation to Patients
The scandal about injuries to cancer patients from malpractice in radiation therapy has had one beneficial side effect: the Food and Drug Administration is gaining urgency and attention for its new initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation in diagnostic imaging of patients. Here is a link to the FDA’s White Paper on its steps to make….
Continue ReadingBack Surgeon Is Hit with Large Malpractice Decision in Florida
This blog has a recurring theme of urging patients to be careful about the alleged wonders of minimally invasive surgery, and also to check a surgeon’s credentials and experience carefully. These themes both come out in a new story about a malpractice legal case. An arbitration panel headed by a retired chief judge has assessed….
Continue ReadingCan a Nurse Go to Prison for Reporting a Doctor for Malpractice?
That question is now on trial in a small west Texas town, where a nurse stands accused of a felony for reporting a doctor whom she thought was guilty of malpractice on patients. Even if the nurse is acquitted, the case could have a chilling effect on nurses’ willingness to act as whistle blowers when….
Continue ReadingJudicial Elections and Medical Malpractice
Once they understand what “tort reform” tries to do to victims of medical malpractice, most fair-minded people agree it’s just not fair to put artificial legislative limits on the amount of money a patient can recover in a lawsuit. Such limits hurt the most devastated victims: People with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries and similar….
Continue ReadingMedical Malpractice: Too Many Lawsuits or Too Much Preventable Harm?
This question can be answered — perhaps unscientifically but with arresting examples nonetheless — by just one week’s worth of news. Joanne Doroshow of the Center for Justice and Democracy did a roundup of the evidence and posted her findings on the Huffington Post. Ms. Doroshow found lots of reports of terrible injuries to patients….
Continue ReadingHealth Care’s Ever-Expanding Share of the Pie
These sobering numbers show the urgency of “bending the cost curve down,” as the pundits like to say. Unfortunately the urgency of reforming the safety and quality of health care has taken a far back seat to the money discussion. They actually are compatible goals.
Continue ReadingA Hospital Safety Credential Worth Looking For
To avoid becoming a malpractice victim, and to get the highest quality care, a useful safety credential for patients to look for in researching hospitals is called NSQUIP. NSQUIP stands for the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, developed by the American College of Surgeons. It was adapted from an error-reduction system started by the Veterans….
Continue ReadingA Doctor Chooses Paid Speeches for Drug Makers Over Academic Prestige
New ethics rules that bar Harvard doctors from giving speeches paid by drug manufacturers have prompted one doctor to give up his prestigious academic position in favor of keeping the income from the speeches. The physician is Dr. Lawrence M. DuBuske, an allergy and asthma specialist who is quitting his positions at Boston’s Brigham and….
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