NY attorney wants to use medical malpractice cases as teaching tools
It is said that those who fail to learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them. This is true in many aspects of life, but especially in medical care. The vast majority of medical mistakes are preventable; and unless physicians and aspiring physicians can learn from past medical errors, patients will continue to suffer […]
If a patient experiences a medical mistake by a healthcare provider they may soon have the opportunity to report that error to a federal database. Since currently so many medical errors go unreported, the government hopes the additional information gathered from patients will help prevent errors and improve health care systems. “Patient reports could complement […]
If you are planning to have surgery soon, or otherwise find yourself in the hospital, you should make a point to be actively involved in your care. Medical errors continue to be a major problem in U.S. hospitals. These include medication errors, wrong-site surgeries and hospital negligence leading to infections and delayed diagnosis. One way to help […]
Medication errors injure approximately 1.3 million Americans each year and cause, on average, at least one death every day. All told, these errors cost over $3.5 billion each year. The Federal Drug Administration lists several common causes of the errors, including poor communication, poor procedures or techniques, confusing packaging and ambiguities in product names or […]
A patient can have a difficult time coping with the knowledge that his or her doctor made a mistake, and rightly so. Doctors are supposed to help their patients, not potentially harm them as the result of negligence, medical errors or medical malpractice. Unfortunately, medical errors are not at all uncommon in America’s health care system. […]
July is a wonderful month in many respects, summer is in full swing, and people are enjoying nice weather and time outside. For hospital patients, however, studies show July can be a dangerous time. Why is this summer month an unfortunate time to visit the hospital? There is a so-called “July Effect”. Every year in […]
Study Says Benefits of E-Prescribing Outweigh Implementation Challenges
A study recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that implementing new electronic prescribing systems can decrease the occurrence of medication errors, but it also can present adaptation challenges for physicians using the systems. Researchers at New York’s Weill Cornell Medical College analyzed e-prescribing implementation at a clinic with 17 doctors between February […]
Patients should be able to receive appropriate medical treatment without concerning themselves with anything other than their recovery. According to a recent survey, however, hospital patients could have more to worry about than they realize. The survey, conducted by medical professional associations and a global training and consulting firm, focused on operating-room and critical-care nurses. […]
Self-Reporting of Medical Errors Leads to False Belief in Improvement
A recent study published by Health Affairs suggests that rather than improving patient safety, health care facilities are underreporting medical errors, skewing statistics that seem to indicate hospitals are becoming a safer place for patients. By misattributing adverse events to a patient’s underlying condition, rather than to a mistake by health care professionals, the study reported that almost […]
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, medical errors are one of the leading causes of death and injury in America. The Institute of Medicine estimates that about 44,000 to 98,000 people die annually in U.S. hospitals because of medical errors, many of which are preventable. Medical errors are adverse events that […]
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