Patients admitted over the weekend face an increased risk, while patients staying over the weekend experience delays at best — and deterioration in clinical condition at worst.
New rules limiting the shifts first-year medical residents can work in hospitals take effect today, but they won’t end the debate over the pros and cons of 24-hour workdays.
Efforts to reduce medical errors have been focused on hospital care but recent research indicates that outpatient care is responsible for many serious injuries.
“Never Events” continue to be common events in U.S. operating rooms. Hospital group estimates 40 “wrong-site” surgeries performed each week in U.S. hospitals and clinics.
Studies of hospitalized patients have found higher rates of errors and poorer outcomes for those treated at night or on the weekend compared with the day shift. Here are some suggestions offered by experts to help patients and families protect themselves.
Medicaid will stop paying for about two dozen “never events” in hospitals, such as operations on the wrong body part and certain surgical-site infections, federal officials said today.
Investigation concluded that Seattle Children’s transport nurses appeared to be confused about what they were allowed to do and whether they could administer medications without a doctor’s order–Seattle Times reports.
Doctors, nurses, and other health care workers are learning that a positive safety culture can improve patient care. What does safety culture in a hospital look like? — Dr. Carolyn Clancy explains.
Electronic health records put your health data—medical history, medicines, allergies, test results, and more—all in one place. This saves you and your medical team time. It also reduces the chance of an error like getting a drug you’re allergic to.
Why have one, two, even three reports about hospitals avoidably (if inadvertently) killing tens of thousands of Americans each year drawn little attention in the press and has been largely ignored by patient advocacy groups, asks columnist Michael Millenson.
Dialysis patients die or are hospitalized every year as a result of catastrophic hemorrhages.
To reduce medical errors, hospitals are forming advisory councils where patients and health care professionals work together to improve safety. In this column, Dr. Carolyn Clancy, M.D., director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, explains how these advisory councils work. Hospital Advisory Councils Get Patients’ View on Safer Health Care By Carolyn [...]
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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