In theory, electronic medical records could offer benefits in terms of preventing medical errors, coordinating care among medical providers, and reducing health care costs. But even as the medical community works toward converting existing paper records to electronic ones, there are those who are concerned about the possible impact on patient safety and privacy. As […]
Pittsburgh residents might know that the medical community is slowly but surely adopting digital records to maintain patient information. Advocates of digital records say they are more comprehensive, less error-prone and easier to cross-check and share than are paper records. But, of course, no system is perfect. If mistakes get made in creating, sharing or […]
Have you ever heard the term “never event”? In a medical malpractice context, it refers to a mistake that is so bad, it should never happen. Things like leaving a surgical sponge inside of a patient or operating on a wrong limb would be considered never events. Recently, a study pertaining to never events caught […]
For a parent, there is perhaps nothing more difficult than having to watch as their very young child is wheeled down a hospital corridor to an operating room for a major procedure. Their child’s life will not only be in the hands of the surgeon, but also the anesthesiologist who must take great care to […]
When a loved one enters the hospital, it’s only natural to feel some apprehension and the need to take certain safety precautions. After all, a basic internet search will likely uncover many startling stories of hospital negligence ranging from deadly infections and prescription errors to failures to diagnose and other appalling medical mistakes. As it […]
It may come as a shock for people to learn that commercial airline pilots must retire by the age of 65 or that FBI agents must also turn in their retirement papers by the age of 57. However, this makes sense when you consider that these are both very demanding positions, and that the mental […]
There is no denying that the majority of us automatically associate medical malpractice with one of the following settings: hospitals, clinics, outpatient surgery facilities or emergency rooms. However, what about assisted living facilities? After all, these centers not only provide long-term care for elderly residents, they also provide short-term care for individuals who have undergone […]
A few months ago, we discussed a very inspiring story about a Florida teenager afflicted with cerebral palsy, a life-altering condition that may result from medical negligence during pregnancy or serious medical errors before, during or after delivery. Specifically, we wrote about 17-year-old Matthew, who was born two months premature back in 1995, weighing less […]
In previous posts, we’ve examined how hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities that fail to follow proper sterilization procedures and/or implement the necessary infection control strategies can be struck by potentially deadly outbreaks of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections. To recap, a MRSA infection is defined by the Mayo Clinic […]
