After persuading as many as 7 in 10 American adults to take a daily low dose of a common painkiller to protect against heart disease and cancer, experts now say it is time for more nuanced advice on who should and who shouldn’t take the daily baby aspirin regimen. Recent studies have shown that the….
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Clinicians are facing up to the preventable harms that ICU’s inflict on many patients in the process of saving lives
Doctors and hospitals finally are owning up to and treating mental and physical damages inflicted on some of the sickest and most vulnerable individuals in their care—the 5 million or so patients who get helped in intensive care units, published research shows. Although ICU patients may get dramatic emergency care that saves them from deadly….
Continue ReadingBureaucrats let medical device makers hide 1 million reports of patient harms
If a surgical staple gun malfunctioned so seriously that it generated not a few dozen formal complaints but more than 10,000 reported incidents, shouldn’t patients, doctors, and hospitals have the right to know that information from the federal agency overseeing the safety of medical devices? Apparently not. Or maybe not without a big kick in….
Continue ReadingFDA warns surgeons against experimental robot-aided cancer operations
The federal Food and Drug Administration finally has pushed back at surgeons and hospitals for experimenting on patients, spending $3 billion a year for surgical robots. The devices should not be used for mastectomies and other cancer-related procedures without caution, regulators warn. The FDA acted after studies have shown that minimally invasive procedures for early-stage….
Continue ReadingFor too many women, an unending and painful tangle with surgical mesh
Tens of thousands of women complain that a surgery to implant mesh to bolster weak abdominal tissue, instead has inflicted on them incontinence, chronic pelvic pain as well as pains in the groin, hip, and leg, and with intercourse. Others say they suffer complications as if they had the immune system attacking disease lupus, leaving them with….
Continue ReadingWho didn’t see this coming? Patient anger grows over knee surgery hype
With a graying nation projected to see millions of patients undergoing knee replacements each year at an annual cost to taxpayers running in the billions of dollars, it may be past time to ask if surgeons and hospitals promote and perform these popular procedures to excess. Liz Szabo, in a story written for the nonprofit,….
Continue ReadingPatients put at risk by lax oversight at psych hospitals and surgery centers
As the new year gets under way, regulators and lawmakers need to look hard at a nightmare in New Jersey involving a free-standing surgical center and to a nationwide harms occurring in psychiatric hospitals to ensure that these and other institutions improve the safety and quality of their patient care. USA Today and the Wall….
Continue Reading‘Bleed Out’ details how daunting the pursuit of justice can be for harmed patients
When doctors, hospitals, insurers, and their captive lawmakers howl about how unfair malpractice lawsuits allegedly can be for modern medicine, patients who have suffered harms while seeking medical services should require loved ones, friends, and members of their community to view Bleed Out. This new HBO documentary details the decade-long quest by comedian Steve Burrows….
Continue ReadingWith more disclosures like these, why would patients want robot surgery?
When surgeons insist on cutting on patients using the million-dollar da Vinci robot system, patients should demand to know why — and to be skeptical to the nth degree whether the device-based operation will be beneficial to them, or if it is yet another way for doctors and hospitals to make medical care exorbitantly expensive….
Continue ReadingWhen Johns Hopkins’ ambitions grew in Tampa, kids suffered, probe shows
When big hospitals aim to get even more giant, they do so at risk of the quality of care they offer to their patients — and they can do much damage to their brand and hard-to-repair reputations. That may be a reality that elite Johns Hopkins may be discovering. The Tampa Bay Times deserves credit….
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