Nearly every week, I hear about a patient who had surgery to relieve terrible chronic back pain and ended up far worse off than before. One of the biggest problems is that money motivates surgeons to talk patients into much bigger and more complex operations than they really need — and then those surgeries result….
Continue ReadingArchives for May 2010
“Drug Facts” Boxes Help Patients Make Intelligent Choices
Medical researchers are discovering that patients aren’t quite as dumb and helpless about making intelligent and informed choices about medical treatments as many doctors have assumed over the years. Case in point: prescription drugs. Patients have proven their ability to make smart choices even in the face of complex pro and con information, as long….
Continue ReadingUpdate on Baltimore Cardiac Malpractice: Victims of One Doctor Could Exceed One Thousand
The scandal of Dr. Mark Midei, the cardiologist at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, Maryland, is scaling new heights in the number of victims counted. The hospital mailed letters to 585 Midei patients informing them that an independent review shows they may have received heart stents unnecessarily for artery narrowing….
Continue ReadingBaltimore Medical Malpractice Scandal Shows Systemic Problems of Hospital Peer Review
Hundreds of patients appear to have received cardiac stents that they didn’t need from Dr. Mark Midei, a cardiologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Towson, Maryland. So why did no one at the hospital blow the whistle? And why did the patients not realize that Midei was rushing them into unwise and risky surgery? Heart….
Continue ReadingMaryland Court Upholds Legal Protection for Nurse Whistleblowers
Nurses are the front-line protectors of patient safety in hospitals, nursing homes and anywhere patients are treated. So to avoid patients being hurt by medical malpractice, it’s important to protect nurses from being fired if they speak up when they see dangerous care. The Maryland Court of Appeals has just recognized this important principle of….
Continue ReadingMost People Who Think They Have Food Allergies Really Don’t
Food allergies are frequently overdiagnosed because the two tests commonly used have less than a 50% accuracy rate, according to a new authoritative study. As a result, whereas three in ten adult Americans think they have one or another food allergy, the actual number is more on the order of one in twenty (5%) adults,….
Continue ReadingBoard Certification: Be Careful of the Grandfathers
One routine piece of advice that many of us patient advocates give about scouting a new doctor is to make sure the doctor is certified by one of the boards under the umbrella of the American Board of Medical Specialties. But there’s a “grandfather” issue that patients need to know about even with these boards…..
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