While nurses deserve patients’ gratitude and the highest praise for the valiant care they have provided during the coronavirus pandemic, a Nashville case has raised tough questions as to whether and when professional caregivers’ medical errors ought to be criminalized. Prosecutors decided that some mistakes rise to the criminal level, after considering the evidence against….
Continue ReadingStandard of Care--Hospitals
With seniors, special focus can be beneficial — in tough surgeries and more
Recognizing that seniors face different health challenges than younger folks could help doctors and hospitals better safeguard older patients who undergo complex and demanding surgery. Paying heightened attention to age’s changes also can be beneficial to older adults in protecting themselves from damaging falls and getting retirees to keep moving to stay fitter — without….
Continue ReadingFor sick seniors, hospitals and nursing homes can be nothing but bad news
In many parts of the developing world, families play a big part in patients’ hospital care. They not only sit for long hours with loved ones, supporting and encouraging their recovery. They also may help with direct services, bathing and cleaning patients, tending to their beds and quarters, and even assisting with their medications and….
Continue ReadingRegulators want to ease safety standards for hospital infections that still sicken millions
As many as 2 million already ailing Americans will acquire an infection while hospitalized, with 90,000 of them dying as a result. Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) will add to the cost of an individual patient’s care anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000, while they will impose a direct hit of anywhere from $28 billion to $45….
Continue ReadingHospitals give patients and taxpayers too many causes for high anxiety
Hospitals may be providing us all with too many causes for high anxiety, with reports on increasing findings of “nightmare” bacteria stalking more health care facilities than had been known, more disclosures about how taxpayers may foot an even bigger bill to deal with a beleaguered public hospital in Washington, D.C., and a respected reform….
Continue ReadingWhy are doctors and hospitals so quick to turn to heart stents and robotic devices?
Hundreds of thousands of times each year, doctors install stents (tiny wire cages) in blocked heart arteries, not only to provide better blood flow to the body’s most important muscle but also ostensibly to provide pain relief to patients. Surgeons also perform tens of thousands of different, minimally invasive procedures with the help of elaborate….
Continue ReadingUnited Medical Center’s woes deepen as ratings group rips DC-area hospitals
Even as District of Columbia officials struggle with deepening woes at the United Medical Center (UMC), advocates from a national, independent, and nonprofit group have offered a dim review of hospitals in the DC area. The bad news keeps piling on at UMC, a leading provider of medical care for communities of color in the….
Continue ReadingA 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 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 ReadingNew disclosures deepen scandal over DC hospital’s risky obstetrics care
Doctors and hospitals across the country push the frontiers of medical science every day, finding new ways to improve health care and to change and save lives. But at the same time, some of medicine’s basics—like delivering babies safely and protecting mothers’ well being—also keep getting botched, especially for poor and black women. It’s a….
Continue Reading