We wrote yesterday about contamination at the pharmacy of the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda. Other big hospitals, judging by media reports, also may need to look at their pharmacy operations, especially when they compound ingredients together into custom drugs for patients. A major hospital in a San Diego, Calif., suburb may have exposed more than….
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Nation’s capital ends the year with a big, needed funding boost for health care
Before they headed off to their holidays, Congress and President Obama wrapped up what many hope will be a helpful fiscal package to benefit Americans’ health: The 2016 omnibus budget bill, which got so much attention, also provided some of the strongest health care funding in more than a dozen years, news reports say. This….
Continue ReadingPatient Deaths at NIH Lead to Blood Banking Reforms
July 25 marks the anniversary of a blood transfusion error between two federal health agencies in 2011 that was implicated in the deaths of two patients at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md. Two patients being treated at NIH received transfusions of platelets from a single donor that were contaminated with the….
Continue ReadingNew Guide for Imaging Tests Aims to Cut Harmful Unnecessary Scans
Regular readers of this blog know that imaging tests – X-rays and MRIs, for example – are frequently used when there’s no need, or when the need is questionable. The Joint Commission’s new campaign, Speak Up, includes guidelines for the use of these tests that should help patients understand when and why they are appropriate,….
Continue ReadingAn Epidemic of Overtreatment
We all know about epidemics of infectious disease — that’s how the science of epidemiology got its name in the 19th century when the cause of cholera was first traced by statistics to a contaminated water well in London. But here’s what a modern epidemic looks like — this one not an epidemic of disease….
Continue ReadingYour Money or Your Life: Injury Toll from Pain Injection Drugs Climbs
As more patients in Maryland, Virginia and seven other states are found with severe meningitis infections from an injected steroid pain drug, the tradeoff in how the drug got made is becoming increasingly plain. It’s a new variation on the old line, “Your money or your life.” The “compounding” pharmacy in Massachusetts that made and….
Continue ReadingThe Kodak Problem with U.S. Health Care in the 21st Century
The Kodak company went bankrupt because it thought it was in the film-making business, and not the image-making business. So when digital technology came along, Kodak wrongly focused on propping up its dying cellulose-based business rather than figuring out how to adapt to the digital age. As goes Kodak, so goes the U.S. health care….
Continue ReadingNew Life for Home Births
For some people, the do-it-yourself movement is a congenital condition. As reported recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after a decline of several years, the number of women choosing to give birth at home boomed from 2004 to 2009. That’s interesting, but the number of women overall who give birth at home….
Continue ReadingPrimary care physicians hardest hit by heart attack malpractice suits
Primary care physicians, such as family practitioners and general internists, have the highest number of heart-attack-diagnosis-related malpractice claims and the highest average lawsuit payments of any physician specialty. According to the study by the Physician Insurers Association, which evaluated paid malpractice claims related to heart attacks since January 1985, family physicians faced the highest number….
Continue ReadingCongress Should Listen to the Patients on Patient Safety Day
I wrote a column posted on Huffington Post about the ninth annual Patient Safety Day on Saturday, July 25. Here’s an excerpt: As Congress tinkers with health care reform, lawmakers should listen to what a special group of advocates is trying to tell them. There is no better day to listen than Saturday, July 25,….
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