According to its manufacturer, 31 million prescriptions have been written for the sleep drug Lunesta, but its standard dose is dangerous, and the FDA is recommending that it be cut in half. Known generically as eszopiclone, the drug’s levels in some people may remain high enough the morning after they use it to impair alertness…..
Continue ReadingArchives for May 2014
Medical Device Recalls Are Up
If it seems like an awful lot of medical devices are malfunctioning, and being recalled from the market, that’s because they are. According to analysis from AboutLawsuits.com about a recently issued report by the FDA, the number of medical device recalls has nearly doubled over the last decade. The report, by the FDA’s Center for….
Continue ReadingCompensation for Medical Executives Puts Priority on Paper Pushing, Not Patient Care
Doctors are high wage earners, but would it surprise you to know that, compared with medical industry executives, their incomes look rather ordinary? A news analysis last week in the New York Times questioned why physicians, the most highly trained members in the industry’s work force and the ones primarily responsible for actually making ill….
Continue ReadingHarmful Spine Treatment Infuse Got an Assist from the FDA
The lawsuit-generating spinal treatment Infuse was approved by the FDA in 2002, and, according to a disturbing investigative report by the Milwaukee Sentinel and MedPage Today, the feds gave it the nod even though concerns about its safety were raised and it had been tested on so few patients as to make conclusions about its….
Continue ReadingFiguring Out Your Risk of Shingles — and How to Protect Yourself
If you have rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or another disorder characterized as an autoimmune disease, you’re at higher risk for developing shingles (herpes zoster), according to a new study. Some chronic conditions also make you vulnerable, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, a respiratory problem), asthma and type 1 diabetes. The herpes zoster vaccine is recommended….
Continue ReadingStudies Raise Concern About Health Status of U.S. Residents
Two reports issued last week have raised eyebrows because they seem to indicate a disturbing prevalence of illness. In California, according to one study, about 1 in 3 hospitalized people older than 34 has diabetes. And a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that about half of all Americans have….
Continue ReadingHospitals Show Small Improvement in Patient Safety
Last week’s report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS, or Medicare), was good news for monitors of two thorny problems associated with being in the hospital – the high incidence of injury, and the large numbers of “bounce backs” — readmissions within 30 days of discharge. As explained on KaiserHealthNews.org (KHN), the….
Continue ReadingProtecting Yourself from the Thousand-a-Day Toll of Medical Error
Scary new numbers have been issued on how many patients die from medical malpractice and medical errors in hospitals. Despite incremental improvements in addressing medical errors, a recent comprehensive analysis published in the Journal of Patient Safety estimated that 440,000 people die every year as victims of medical errors they experienced as hospital patients. That’s….
Continue ReadingSuggested Reading: Why the Hospice Industry Needs More Oversight
The relatively new hospice industry is a needed and important part of end-of-life care. But it has grown too quickly for the relatively minor oversight it gets, and that has caused heart-wrenching patient harm. That’s the take-home message of a recent exposé in the Washington Post. “Hospices,” it says, “are among the least inspected organizations….
Continue ReadingBlood Transfusions Can Save Your Life … and Raise Your Risk of Infection
Blood transfusions are a common hospital procedure. But according to a study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the more red blood cells hospital patients receive, the higher their risk of infection. Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System concluded that….
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