- Lauren Ellerman | November 29, 2007 9:39 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeAnother study - another outcome... Study warns that 2% of all cancer cases, may actually be caused by radiation from CT scans. The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, as reported on by most major news outlets, encourages radiologists to consider whether all the extra testing is needed.As CBS news reported, "We are very concerned about the built-up public health risk over a...
- Dan Frith | November 29, 2007 9:10 AM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseIt is about time! The Federal and State governments pay a substantial portion of the costs for nursing home care through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Taxpayers spend about $72.5 billion a year to subsidize the cost of nursing home care. So, shouldn't we demand good care for the residents and refuse to tolerate substandard nursing homes?Fifty-four nursing homes are being told by the...
- Dan Frith | November 27, 2007 3:56 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeWe have now all heard the sad story about how doctors are getting out of medicine due to the high costs of medical malpractice insurance. I don't doubt that some doctors with atrocious track records of providing poor medical care pay hefty malpractice premiums. I also don't doubt that the insurance carriers and the executives who run them are making piles of money providing medical malpractice...
- Dan Frith | November 27, 2007 6:47 AM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseWhat in the world is going on in Tennessee? Either they have some of the worst nursing homes in America or investigators are just beginning to do a thorough job! In just the first 11 months of 2007 Tennessee has suspended admissions at 20 nursing homes this year -- that's double the number in 2006 and more than triple the 2005 amount!Talk about widespread abuse and neglect!This is an alarming...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 26, 2007 11:00 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeHow will our next President feel about tort reform? Medicare? Health insurance for all? What about healthcare in children - will they have a plan?So many candidates, so many ideas... and yes, they are only ideas. You can say that Gov. Romney, or Sen. Clinton have plans, but it takes a few in congress to make that plan a reality.This morning I heard an interesting feature on NPR about national...
- Dan Frith | November 26, 2007 9:41 AM |
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MiscellaneousIt's a sad commentary but the Roman Catholic Church is back in the headlines and again it's a case involving the abuse of young boys and girls by Priests. A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay $50 million to more than 100 Alaska Natives who allege sexual abuse by Jesuit priests. The settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus is the largest one yet against a...
- Dan Frith | November 19, 2007 11:57 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeHere is the debate: Lawyers for the victims of medical malpractice say caps on damages work a terrible disadvantage to the most seriously injured patients - those who will live a lifetime of pain and physical limitations. Medical providers claim they need the protection in order to keep their malpractice premiums at a level they can afford. I have two responses: First, excessive malpractice...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 19, 2007 10:29 AM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbusePressure Ulcer case in Tennessee - $4 million for family of deceased resident (Stage IV ulcer)Nursing home staff fails to take blood tests to regulate Coumadin (I just wrote about this issue) - death results, $500,000Elopement case - woman allowed to leave facility, injured $$$ verdictAwful things happen every day in these facilities - please be careful when admitting a loved one!For more...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 17, 2007 10:17 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeIntubation is the insertion of a tube into the patient's airway to allow mechanical ventilation.Car accident victims, someone with swollen airway, difficult breathing - most EMT's, flight nurses, and emergency room physicians know how to create an airway to allow for breathing. You may have even heard urban legends of someone using ball point pens to create airways.They are often required - yet...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 16, 2007 10:10 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeWe have seen many coumadin cases over the years. Post surgery, failure to prescribe, and embolism occurs - causing stroke, death etc. We also see cases where the medication is not properly monitored or levels regulated. It is a difficult medication to prescribe and monitor, but often we see doctors simply forget to prescribe it, or assume another doctor already has.Illinois Hospital settles such...
- Dan Frith | November 14, 2007 5:41 PM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseCorporate owners of America's nursing homes are in for some strict scrutiny by Congress! It's about time! It's about time America stopped the abuse and neglect so widespread in our long term care facilities. Starting tomorrow, Congressional hearings in both the Senate and the House will feature presentations sure to widely criticize the state of affairs in nursing homes."It's been far too...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 14, 2007 2:14 PM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseDo you think 1 RN could care for 30 elderly patients that need help with all activities of daily living? What about 1 RN and 3 Nursing Assistants? Is that enough? Most states don't have minimum staffing level requirements - and while federal law has "minimum" goals for hours staff spend with each patiient, many believe specific requirements must be enacted.According to the CMS report to...
- Dan Frith | November 14, 2007 6:00 AM |
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MiscellaneousIt seems that every type of consumer transaction these days is governed by a mandatory arbitration provision. Arbitration language in these contracts prevents the consumer from exercising their Constitutional rights to bring a civil claim if their stock broker depletes their retirement account, or the nursing home fails to properly care for their mother or father, or they have a dispute with...
- Dan Frith | November 13, 2007 1:59 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeABC News is reporting that rap singer Kanye West's mother, Donda West, had a tummy tuck and breast reduction performed by a cosmetic surgeon shortly before her death, according to the Web site TMZ.com. Dr. Jan Adams told TMZ that he was not responsible for her death, but that she may have died from a heart attack, pulmonary embolism or massive vomiting. Another plastic surgeon told ABC News...
- Dan Frith | November 13, 2007 9:50 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeI am 50 years old and starting to feel it! You know...those everyday aches and pains. This past summer I injured my back while exercising and ended up with pain and numbness shooting down my leg and couldn't get comfortable sitting, standing, or lying down for extended periods of time. My doctors did not recommend surgery and for that I am grateful. A few weeks of rest and medication did the...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 12, 2007 3:01 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeWow... This one really tests the limits of malpractice I think. What do you think?Seattle Post Intelligencer reports today that physician is not held liable by high court. The baby's parents filed a malpractice lawsuit after his 2004 birth. They claimed doctors in Vancouver were negligent when they continued to resuscitate the baby for almost half an hour after he was born.Nichole Stewart-Graves...
- Dan Frith | November 10, 2007 6:25 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeNew Jersey-based Merck, the maker of the painkiller Vioxx, has agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits in one of the largest civil cases ever. The proposed settlement becomes binding only if the majority of those plaintiffs agree to drop their cases. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say Merck misled patients about the safety of Vioxx. Merck pulled Vioxx from the market Sept. 30,...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 09, 2007 10:20 AM |
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Automobile AccidentsI know how blessed I am that I have never been in a serious car accident... but I know from working with families that have had such an experience, that they can be devastating. Bills. Bill Collectors. Missed Work. Appointments. Missed activities, vacations, employment opportunities. The list goes on and on - and while most of the time there is sufficient insurance to cover the damages, we...
- Dan Frith | November 09, 2007 6:00 AM |
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MiscellaneousHere is a scary, but true, story! Kathryn Biery, a Harrisonburg, Virginia dentist lost her license over the misuse of anesthesia, which is used frequently in dental procedures. Dr. Biery, among other things, failed to complete a comprehensive pre-operative assessment of a 3 year-old girl. More importantly, the amount of Vistaril given to the young girl to sedate her prior to the dental...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 08, 2007 9:56 AM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseHave you ever had to provide care for someone who couldn't walk without help, eat without help, or someone who had short term memory loss? What about someone with aggressive tendencies caused by illness such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease? It can be a very difficult, and tiring task.What about taking care of 48,000 people - in 278 different locations. Think this should be a difficult job? I...
- Dan Frith | November 07, 2007 3:10 PM |
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MiscellaneousIf you are like me, a day doesn't go by without several unsolicited emails landing in my "In-Box" offering me low cost medicines. But just where are these medications coming from? Well, most come from outside the United States...but those foreign suppliers of medications undergo the same scrutiny by the FDA that domestic manufacturers do...don't they? The short answer is "No."The General...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 06, 2007 3:01 PM |
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MiscellaneousLast week we read about a 39 year old man that died in the emergency room of an LA hospital, waiting for treatment. Today we learn of the family of a woman who died earlier this year after writhing in pain on the waiting room floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, filed a $45-million lawsuit against Los Angeles County on Monday, alleging negligence, medical malpractice and wrongful...
- Dan Frith | November 06, 2007 1:01 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeThe news is full of reports of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) - a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection found in schools, nursing homes, and hospitals. The same reports stress better personal hygiene including hand-washing, gloves and masks where appropriate. But what if you are about to enter a hospital for an elective operation - don't you want to know how the...
- Dan Frith | November 05, 2007 12:33 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeAs early as January of 2007, hospitals began seeing problems in patients with Medtronic implanted defibrillators who were experiencing severe electrical shocks. The shocks were caused by broken wires, called a lead, which tells a defibrillator when to send an electrical shock to a malfunctioning heart. The Minneapolis Heart Institute concluded that the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis defibrillator...
- Dan Frith | November 05, 2007 12:19 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeBayer has announced it is suspending sales of Trasylol worldwide amid evidence that the antibleeding drug may have a higher risk of death than similar drugs. Trasylol is an antifibrinolytic drug, used to slow the breakdown of blood clots and subsequent excessive bleeding. The drug is widely used in heart-bypass surgery, by reducing reduce blood loss, it helps patients avoid transfusions. ...
- Dan Frith | November 04, 2007 12:19 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeHere is a story that is hard to believe! A Syracuse, New York dentist seriously injured his patient while dancing to a song on the radio! This is more than negligence...this is stupidity!Brandy Fanning, 31, was seriously injured by her dentist when, while dancing to a song on the radio, a drill bit used for a dental procedure broke off and lodged near her eye. According to a recently filed...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 02, 2007 3:17 PM |
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MiscellaneousIf you buy pair of shoes from a store, you will likely know how much you are paying. Go to the hospital for a CT or spend a few days in ICU, and I bet you have know idea what you are paying. They don't generally give you a price list for services - in fact, it is the ONLY industry I can think of where there is no discussion of costs up front.So how do you know if they are charging you too much?...
- Dan Frith | November 02, 2007 3:09 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeDementia is a fairly common diagnosis for patients in nursing homes. The condition is typically diagnosed by its symptoms - a significant loss of intellectual abilities such as memory capacity which is severe enough to interfere with social or occupational functioning. Dementia is typically treated by the use of antipsychotics such as Haldol, Risperidal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, and others. While...
- Lauren Ellerman | November 01, 2007 9:25 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeThis article is upsetting - but not the first time we have heard about an emergency room wait being so long that a person does not receive treatment in time.LA Times reports "Christopher Jones arrived at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar on Sunday complaining of chest pains. Jones, 33, was told to sit in the waiting room until it was his turn. He didn't receive a simple test to determine...