Doctors and nurses bring different values, different training, and different snapshots of patients to the process of care, so it’s no wonder they can disagree. Often the disagreements are not about technical issues but about basic human values where there is no clear right and wrong. Theresa Brown, R.N., has an excellent column in the….
Continue ReadingArchives for October 2010
Malpractice Questions Raised in Kansas High School Football Player’s Leg Amputation
When Trevor Roberts’ leg bones snapped during a high school football game near Wichita, Kansas, he received the standard orthopedic treatment: a resetting of the bones with a titanium rod to hold them in place. So why did he have to have an above-the-knee amputation because of gangrene six days later? The surgeon who had….
Continue ReadingSpecialized, high volume ambulatory surgery centers improve patient outcomes, study says
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) that specialize and have high case volumes have better patient outcomes, according to a study by researchers at four U.S. universities. The researchers found that the more a facility specialized in its services –and the higher its case volume for those services, the higher its patient quality scores. The researchers defined….
Continue ReadingEight years on, diet drug Meridia withdrawn from market
A diet drug which safety advocates called to be withdrawn from public use eight years ago has finally bit the dust. Under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, the drug’s manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, voluntarily pulled the drug from the market due to longstanding concerns that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes…..
Continue Reading“The Mammography Wars” and Doctors’ Conflicts of Interest
It was nearly a year ago that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force caused a huge uproar with the mildest imaginable recommendation about mammograms, and now two physician researchers say it might be time to point out that certain emperors are wearing no clothes. In their Sounding Board article in the New England Journal of….
Continue ReadingFat-Melting Injections: Dangerous, Unproven but Widely Available
LipoDissolve is the brand name for an injectable drug that is supposed to melt fat. The patient gets a series of injections that supposedly dissolve the bonds between fat cells, and the body then flushes the fat away. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Patients who’ve had these injections have told the Food and Drug Administration that….
Continue ReadingER delays cause patients to skip care
Delays in the emergency room cause some patients to forgo treatment, according to a study by the University of South Florida. The study found that when ER patients have to wait to be admitted to hospital, the waiting time for other ER patients becomes longer, and the more likely it is that some of them….
Continue ReadingStudy to examine electronic health records safety
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) will conduct a year-long study to identify best policies and practices for improving healthcare safety and reducing malpractice when using electronic health records. The study will focus on prevention of health IT-related errors, rapid reporting of patient safety concerns and methods to promote safety-enhancing features of electronic health records. After….
Continue ReadingOpen and Honest: New York Hospitals Test Malpractice Pilot Program
Five hospitals in New York City have joined a 3-year, $3-million program aimed at decreasing medical malpractice costs. The federally funded program will attempt to cut malpractice-related costs at the five hospitals by (a) revealing medical errors quickly; (b) offering early settlements; and (c) using judicial mediators to assist in settlement negotiations as an alternative….
Continue ReadingAntipsychotic Drugs: Oversold and Under-Warned
Antipsychotic drugs have now become the top-selling class of prescription drugs in the United States, with $14.6 billion in annual revenue. Quite a trick for a group of drugs approved for one percent or less of the population. But now you can go into any nursing home or elementary school and find non-psychotic patients taking….
Continue Reading