Is the coronavirus’s staggering toll on patients in nursing homes something to be written off as a force of nature for which humans bear little fault? Or are there lessons to be learned about shortcomings that could help preserve lives the next time? News media reports keep unearthing institutional misery and a blindness to the suffering….
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New hospitals may offer hope to D.C.’s poor, minority areas as Covid-19 rages
Even as the Covid-19 pandemic shows the terrible toll inflicted on African Americans in the District of Columbia by health care disparities, city officials have announced they are advancing with a pricey plan to plug a giant hole in area medical services by helping to fund not one but two new hospitals that will serve….
Continue ReadingU.S. botched testing. What about the next steps to fight Covid-19: tracing and isolating?
As state and local officials struggle with constituents restless with measures designed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the next key phases in the battle with the novel coronavirus may prove yet more contentious. How ready are we to accept not just testing but also tracing and isolating infections? The White House is bolting to….
Continue ReadingCovid-19 shifts from health menace to a political and economic nightmare, too.
The viral outbreak that exploded out of central China suddenly has captured the rapt attention of Wall Street, the White House, and Americans from coast to coast. The rising pitch and politicization of the important conversation about Covid-19 — a respiratory virus that already has posed a growing global health threat — can only be….
Continue ReadingFor patients, a glimpse into data on the quality and safety of surgery centers
They may be more appealing and convenient because they’re located in the neighborhood with better hours and more parking. They also may be less costly because they lack the high overheard of big hospitals. But those booming same-day surgery centers have patient safety issues of their own. Their doctors and nurses may not be as….
Continue ReadingSafety concerns grow over cars’ high-tech braking and summoning features
Technology advocates may be ignoring due cautions as they put software ahead of safety in the push to make the vehicles of today and tomorrow more self-driving (aka autonomous). Car and truck owners, safety advocates warn, should proceed with care before relying on automatic emergency braking systems, especially as they purport to safeguard pedestrians. Restraint….
Continue ReadingHome care for the aged has become a quiet calamity for all involved
Americans are confronting a care-giving calamity with the elderly at home, and the alarms are sounding loudly about it. But are experts and politicians grasping the severity of this crushing health care shortfall? The New York Times, Vox, Washington Post, and Forbes all published detailed and solid news articles about the nation’s quiet nightmare with….
Continue ReadingDo health care’s perverse incentives lure MDs into deliberate misdiagnosis for profit?
When doctors become medical outliers, shouldn’t hospitals, colleagues, insurers, and the rest of us ask how and why an individual practitioner diverges so much from the way others provide care? Olga Khazan details for the Atlantic magazine the disturbing charges involving Yasser Awaad, a pediatric neurologist at a hospital in Dearborn, Mich. As she describes….
Continue ReadingCutting resident doctors’ hours doesn’t harm quality of patient care, study finds
Will the medical educators finally get that it makes no sense to force residents to toil like field animals? Yet another study, this latest from Harvard experts, finds that keeping residency training hours at more humane levels does not significantly affect quality of patient care, including inpatient mortality. Let’s be clear: The grueling preparation for….
Continue ReadingWith 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….
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