It often seems that we read about pharmacies providing patients with the wrong prescriptions, the wrong dosages or the wrong instructions on a semi-regular basis. Fortunately, the majority of these stories have relatively happy endings in the sense that the victims don’t suffer permanent and debilitating injuries because of these otherwise preventable medication errors. However, […]
A patient bill of rights is a list of what a hospital promises to its patients to protect their interests. In 2001, the United States Congress proposed a bill called the “Bipartisan Patient Protection Act.” The purpose of the bill was to provide comprehensive protections to Americans covered by health insurance plans. Included in the […]
Last week, our blog discussed how CDC statistics revealed that catheter associated urinary tract infections — or CAUTIs — are among the most common types of hospital-acquired infections, comprising over 30 percent of total infections. We also discussed how untreated CAUTIs can evolve into potentially deadly bloodstream infections, while even CAUTIs treated with antibiotics can […]
“As I see it- injured sick patients are why both nurse practitioners and medical malpractice attorneys exist. Both of these roles require someone to be willing and able to speak up for people who cannot speak up for themselves.” P
It goes without question that one of the more unpleasant surprises for many patients admitted to the hospital is learning that they will have to use a urinary catheter during their stay. For those unfamiliar with this device, it is essentially a small tube guided into the bladder via the urethra that allows urine to […]
There is no question that two of the biggest health crises facing America today are heart disease and diabetes. To illustrate, consider that the Heart Foundation estimates that more than 920,000 Americans will suffer a heart attack over the course of the coming year, and that roughly half of these heart attacks will occur without […]
As hard as it may be to believe, many tech companies are adamant that the next generation of hardware will evolve from laptops, tablets and smartphones to include so-called wearable computers. For example, several companies have already experimented with computers built into watches or even eyeglasses. Interestingly enough, the most well-known wearable computer — Google […]
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there are a surprisingly large number of reasons why a patient can end up with the wrong drug, including confusion over dosage or similar sounding drug names, illegible physician handwriting and poorly designed medication packaging, to name only a few. While you might imagine the fallout from […]
Four years ago, the World Health Organization released a groundbreaking report examining the rate at which Cesarean sections were being performed around the globe. Somewhat shockingly, the WHO report determined that as many as 69 countries had a C-section rate that exceeded what the agency defined as an otherwise acceptable rate of 15 percent of […]
Thanks to advances in computer engineering and the proliferation of advanced — and cheaper — machines, everyone from software giants and tech companies to hospitals and university researchers are now looking to capitalize upon the growing power of artificial intelligence as it relates to the world of medicine. Thus far AI has evolved to such […]
