The nation’s leading watchdog of hospital safety and quality is quick to hand out its “Gold Seal of Approval” and rarely penalizes care-giving institutions, even when state and federal officials find serious problems. The Wall Street Journal deserves credit for its investigation of the Joint Commission, the nonprofit and industry-supported organization that is supposed to….
Continue ReadingArchives for September 2017
A new tool for finding how your hospital rates
Patrick Malone & Associates has a new tool for patients to easily check out how their hospital stacks up on quality and safety measures. The tool is on our website here, and covers all hospitals in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, including northern Virginia, the Maryland suburbs of DC and the District of Columbia itself…..
Continue ReadingIn a sadly still unequal U.S., parasites flourish and rural moms can’t get care
It can be too easy to forget the unfortunate, inequitable legacy of the Old South, especially how racist Dixie created stark racial health disparities. But sometimes a foreigner’s jab in the ribs can remind us how making America great again could mean tending much better to our collective p’s and q’s in public health, especially….
Continue ReadingIn hospitals, angry guys with guns (even with badges) are a bad idea
Medicine and law enforcement can be a combustible combination, as a widely publicized incident in a Utah emergency room has reminded. The ugly incident has underscored the importance of hospitals keeping big, upset guys with guns cordoned off from caregivers, as well as the importance of front-line medical personnel knowing, respecting, and protecting patients’ privacy….
Continue ReadingAs fentanyl deaths soar, big questions on Big Pharma’s role in pushing drug
A Missouri Senator has accused Insys Therapeutics, a major drug maker, of conducting a sneaky campaign to get more pain-wracked cancer patients to use its synthetic and super powerful opioid drug, thus helping to fuel the wildfire spread of increasingly lethal and debilitating prescription pain killers. Sen. Claire McCaskill and investigators from a Senate committee,….
Continue ReadingBaltimore health program keeps eyes on prize: kids’ vision, school success
With youngsters now back to school, it’s worth noting how attention to seemingly small matters can make big differences in children’s health, well-being and academic achievement. Kudos to Politico, the much-followed national political news web site, for following up on an excellent Baltimore initiative to test and improve school kids’ vision, including providing them with….
Continue ReadingNursing homes, where more of us will go, fail to properly report abuse cases
With more Americans than previously thought needing care in the nation’s nursing homes, will more of us start to pay greater attention to the unacceptable and under-reported elder abuse occurring there? And with calamities like Hurricane Harvey fresh in mind, will more sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, and other friends and loved ones take….
Continue ReadingBig Pharma advances cancer, heart care–but with $475,000 price tags for consumers?
Drug makers have just shown not only their verve in pursuing new ways to treat cancer and heart disease but also their nerve in pricing these novel therapies as if sick patients had the wealth of mega lottery winners. Just look at what Novartis is doing with the medications Kymirah and canakinumab, a drug now….
Continue ReadingFlooding staggers Texas medical system
Houston’s medical system was staggered, but it stood up to the pounding inflicted by Hurricane Harvey’s winds and rains. But for the millions of residents of the nation’s fourth largest city huge challenges will persist for some time to their health and well-being. Texans’ tragedies may offer us painful reminders we should heed about planning and….
Continue Reading