Unless it’s an emergency, having surgery on a weekend is not common, and it’s usually not a good idea. Patients who go under the knife over the weekend generally stay longer in the hospital, are more likely to be readmitted within 30 days and have higher mortality rates, according to the American Association for the….
Continue ReadingQuality outcome measures
Report Criticizes FDA’s Drug Safety Tracking
When drug manufacturers are responsible for reporting the potential side effects of the products they develop, is it any surprise that the record is less than complete? Last week the Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) issued a report critical of the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) because of incomplete information about injuries and….
Continue ReadingMore Evidence that Vitamin D Tests May Not Be Needed
Although some people don’t get enough vitamin D, and a deficiency of it can cause problems, a federal panel has determined that the jury is out on whether routine testing for vitamin D level in the blood makes sense. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, (USPSTF) an independent body of experts in prevention and evidence-based….
Continue ReadingRobotic and Traditional Bladder Surgery Show Similar Rate of Complications
For all its techno-wonder and new-age appeal, robotic surgery has racked up a host of problems, including unacceptable incidents of tears and burns to internal organs. Now, a new analysis of robotic versus traditional methods showed no difference in the rate of complications for surgical removal of the bladder. Robotic surgery is a minimally invasive….
Continue ReadingHarms Usually Exceed Benefits of Cancer Screening for Older People
Minimal benefit in exchange for considerable cost, discomfort and the possibility of complications — clearly that’s a losing proposition, but that is exactly what’s happening with cancer screenings and people over age 65. A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at screening rates for four types of cancer. Each rate declined as a patient’s….
Continue ReadingCalculating the Risk of Medical Intervention
We always advise people to understand the risks as well as the benefits of any procedure or treatment they are considering, but getting your arms around the idea of “risk” – much less being able to quantify it – is a challenge all its own. Last month, “Risk and Reason,” a multipart series on NPR,….
Continue ReadingFeds Quietly Stop Reporting Some Hospital Errors
We’ve long advised medical consumers to research hospitals they’re considering using for the kind and frequency of errors they make. But according to a story on USAToday.com, suddenly that’s more difficult than it used to be. “The federal government this month quietly stopped publicly reporting when hospitals leave foreign objects in patients’ bodies or make….
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 ReadingMammograms Take Another Hit from Researchers
If regular mammograms really saved lives, they ought to show lower death rates in a big systematic study. But they didn’t, in the latest and biggest research study, published this week, on this once sacrosanct pillar of preventive medicine. The numbers say it all. Some 90,000 Canadian women were assigned by a coin flip into….
Continue ReadingMedical Tourism: An Update with Eye-Popping Numbers
We’ve heard of traveling to Mexico or India for saving big bucks on expensive surgery, but now “medical tourism” is a realistic option for travel to Europe and other “first world” places too, with similar big savings. The issue this highlights is not just pinching pennies, but why is American medical care so expensive, with….
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