Stinky urine in children linked to urinary tract infections. Really. I’ll bet that runny noses in children are linked to head colds, too. C’mon. Are pediatricians that hard up for things to study?
$8.25 million settlement when 30 week old preemie (born at 24 weeks) dies after receiving dose of saline 60 times greater than prescribed after heart surgery.
Virginia woman sues hospital for failing to make sure that everyone who touched a patient “wore gloves, masks or washed their hands” and to assure that the patient received “clean, bacteria free medical equipment.” While in the hospital for a partial bowel obstruction, the patient had an IV catheter placed, later developed phlebitis at the site, and the localized phlebitis spread to her bloodstream and seeded in one of her knees.
I try to tell people this when they want to be admitted to the hospital – they aren’t safe places.
Las Vegas lawyer settles medical malpractice case for $238,000. Then the fun begins. In the initial distribution of funds, Medicaid was going to get $79,000, the patient was going to get $29,000, and the lawyers were going to get $130,000 – including fees and costs. A judge nixxed the distribution, giving the patient $95,000 and the lawyers $63,000.
Surgeon posts on Facebook that he has been “slaughtering the innocent” while performing surgery. Says it was intended as a light-hearted comment solely for another colleague, but apparently forgot that people other than his colleague use Facebook. Families whose loved ones have died under the surgeon’s care don’t appreciate the comments and complained to the licensing board.
California Center for Healthcare Reporting publishes a five-part series on emergency department “frequent flyers.” It is well done and explains things from both a patient’s perspective and a provider’s perspective. Definitely worth a read.
Wonder why there aren’t any physicians standing by at your marathon? One reason may be that malpractice insurance companies won’t provide them insurance. Although possibly an overblown fear – no examples of a physician sued for malpractice at a race could be found – just another example of how liability and/or perceptions about liability can affect the availability of medical care.
Disease mongering and how pharmaceutical companies earn millions of dollars from engaging in it. If there’s a disease, you must be able to purchase a pill to fix it.
After an LA Times reporter wrote a story about a “$5000 tummy ache” in the emergency department, he follows up with a second article discussing all the stories about how charges for medical care seem to be largely arbitrary. One physician’s daughter had an ultrasound that cost $3200 before insurance and cost $1700 after insurance discounts for his high-deductible plan … and only $250 when he decided to pay in cash and forget the insurance.
DEA busts six Florida Walgreens stores for dispensing too many pain killers (video file). Notice how the DEA is conspicuously not busting the patients that are purchasing the pain killers?
What data might the medical records be hiding due to HIPAA laws? Nick Genes and Kevin Baumlin have a nice article about how hiding data from medical providers can have unintended consequences. Administrators take note.
Patient awarded $3 million after radiologist mis-reads CT scan causing delay in diagnosis of colon cancer.
Another hospital/emergency department closure. This time it is not only lack of funding, but also governmental red tape. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would not grant the hospital a waiver to continue to operate while it worked to complete CMS certification. Now, the residents of Cheyboygan, Michigan have no hospital medical care. But I’m sure they’re safer – a lack of proper governmental paperwork might have killed them all.
Several states are now considering legislation that immunizes doctors from liability if they withhold information from a patient to prevent her from having an abortion. Doctors would also be shielded from liability if the patient developed an injury from the pregnancy that she would have aborted.
I don’t personally agree with abortion, but I also think a woman has a right to choose what happens to her body. Every patient has a right to be fully informed. Laws like this go too far.