According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cerebral palsy — defined as “a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture” — affects roughly one in every 303 children. The symptoms of this condition frequently include: Muscle spasms Muscle stiffness Mobility problems Vision, hearing or speech […]
According to a recently published study in the science journal PLoS One, there are nearly 15 million medication errors in the United States each year and the majority of these errors involve patients failing to properly manage their medication regimens while at home. While this is certainly a shocking finding on its own, the study […]
When we think of hospital stays, we think of terms like treatment, healing and safety. What we certainly don’t think of are terms such as adverse event or temporary harm event. However, a recent study performed by Department of Health and Human Services inspectors shows that these terms are a reality for over 25 percent […]
At this time of the year, it’s not uncommon to hear the term “the July effect” bandied about in conversations about medical treatment. To the uninitiated, this probably sounds like a description of some vague time period in which people are somehow more susceptible to certain injuries or illnesses. The truth is that the term […]
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a very interesting — yet horrifying — story in the latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report discussing a recent infection cluster caused by the misuse of drug vials by medical professionals. Although the study did not specifically mention infections in Pennsylvania, the practice thought to […]
One of the most important tasks that any medical professional must perform before treating a patient is identifying their allergies — food, drug or otherwise. Failure to do so can lead to medical complications resulting in serious injuries or even death. Sadly, this is exactly what transpired in a wrongful death case out of Mississippi, […]
From colleges and cars to computers and cameras, it often seems as if you can’t log onto the internet these days without encountering some sort of seemingly random ranking system. In general, it’s relatively easy to dismiss the majority of these rankings as either biased and/or inherently flawed. However, every once in awhile a ranking […]
There is simply no disputing the gravity of a major medication error. The wrong dosage, the wrong drug or the administration of the wrong combination of drugs can all prove utterly devastating — if not fatal — to a patient. As such, physicians, pharmacists and nurses must all work together to help ensure that patients […]
A recently released study in the medical journal Archives of Surgery reveals some very interesting — and highly disturbing — trends regarding surgeons, the physicians in whom we perhaps place our greatest trust. The study, performed by researchers at some of America’s premier medical facilities, sought to measure the personal and professional consequences of so-called […]
