Medical Errors
Surgical Errors Still Happen
Medical mistakes have been in the spotlight over the last decade, ever since the Institute of Medicine published a report called To Err Is Human. Surgeons were supposed to have adopted procedures to k…
Safer Prescribing Still Elusive
Computerized prescribing systems often warn doctors of potential interactions, but in one recent study this warning delayed crucial treatment. Nearly 2,000 prescribers were included in the study, whic…
Telephone Support Cut Hospitalization
In a world dominated by technology-assisted social networking such as Facebook and Twitter, old-fashioned communication can be surprisingly effective. People with complicated medical conditions such a…
E-Prescribing Gains Ground
Doctors are renowned for poor penmanship. This is not a joking matter, however, since misread prescriptions have led to serious mistakes in dosing, adverse reactions or even death. Prescribing electro…
Don’t Let the Cure Kill You
Hospitals can be dangerous places. The sickest people with the nastiest infections get treated there. But a lot of people catch bad bugs while they are in the hospital. An estimated 100,000 people die…
Overprescribing Hard to Change
Acid suppressing drugs like Aciphex, Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec are incredibly popular, but are such proton pump inhibitors being overprescribed? Although such medications are important in treating…
Surgery Centers Lax on Infection Control
Hospital-acquired infections have become a huge problem in America. Experts estimate that at least 100,000 people die because of something they caught while hospitalized. Now a new report suggests tha…
Presurgical Checklists Save Lives
Before pilots are cleared for takeoff they must run through a checklist. Until recently, however, doctors did not have a comparable safety procedure. There is a growing movement to encourage health ca…
Bar Codes in the Hospital
Bar codes have become ubiquitous in the world of retail. Most clerks don't have to waste time typing in a code or a price. Instead they quickly scan a bar code that registers the exact item you have p…
Preventing Health Care Harm
According to the FDA, "Medication errors cause at least one death every day and injure approximately 1.3 million people annually in the United States." Such statistics are too overwhelming to comprehe…
Too Many Articles Are Mum on Harm
Treatments for urinary problems and prostate cancer carry certain risks. How well do physicians communicate complications in journal articles? A new analysis suggests that urologists don't do such a g…
Do Specialists Slant Their Recommendations for T…
Most patients assume that their physician will give them unbiased recommendations about the best treatment for their condition. A new study, however, suggests that specialists tend to promote treatmen…
Electronic Prescribing Cuts Errors
Doctors are renowned for their illegible hand writing. When pharmacists cannot easily decipher a hand-scrawled prescription, errors can result. A new study suggests that electronic prescribing can cut…
Dosing Cups Linked to Mistakes
When parents have to give liquid medicine to a small child, they frequently make dosing mistakes. One common problem is using kitchen spoons, which vary widely in the dose they deliver. But even the d…
Deadly Drug Disasters Are Preventable
Every day in this country someone dies from a medication mistake. According to the FDA, more than one million people are injured annually because of drug errors. In some cases a patient gets the wrong…
Don’t Measure Medicine in Kitchen Spoon
Administering liquid medicine is trickier than it looks, especially when the recipient is a squirming toddler. Many parents reach for a kitchen spoon when giving drugs like liquid antibiotics or pain …
Preventing Drug Mistakes In The Hospital
Hospitals are dangerous places. Our ancestors intuitively knew that and generally tried to stay out of the hospital if at all possible. These days we like to think of hospitals as sterile, safe and hi…
When Do Doctors Tell Parents About Errors in Chi…
Pediatricians may not tell parents when they make a mistake in a child's care. The Institute of Medicine issued a report several years ago documenting widespread hospital errors. In the aftermath of t…
Radiation from CT Scans May Pose Risk
CT scans are under continued scrutiny for safety. A few weeks ago a report at the Radiological Society Meeting of North America suggested that routine CT scans add to the overall radiation burden. As …
Outrage Over Mammogram Mix-Up
For over 50 years the idea of early cancer detection has been a cornerstone of American medical advice. The American Cancer Society promoted this concept with its slogan, "Fight cancer with a checkup …
Health Care Provider Who Fails to Wash Hands Spr…
Hand washing is an important infection control method in hospitals across the country. A new mathematical model suggests that hospitals may have to become even more diligent. The investigators explore…
X-Ray Equipment May Spread Infections
An unexpected location for bad bacteria may be portable X-ray equipment. A study in Israel revealed that portable X-ray equipment may be contributing to the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. In the c…
More Children Poisoned by Medicines
Childhood poisonings are going down overall in the U.S., but the proportion attributed to kids getting into medicine is rising. Medication overdoses account for over two-thirds of all childhood poison…
Abnormal Results May Not Be Shared with Patient
Physicians frequently fail to tell patients about abnormal laboratory findings. That is the conclusion of a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers reviewed medical records o…
Industry Influence Undermines Medical care
“You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.” Human beings have operated on this principle even before the dawn of civilization.This practice can work for mutual benefit, but it also ca…
Is Physician Fatigue Fatal for Patients?
“Physician, heal thyself” is a proverb from the Bible. It is often interpreted to mean that people should tend to their own frailties before trying to correct the defects of others.Doctors…
Electronic Prescribing Has Benefits
When automobiles first started showing up on America’s streets, a lot of people were skeptical. Cars were noisy and unreliable and many people thought they were just a passing fancy.Within a few…
Beware Of Drug Name Mix-Ups
What’s in a name? According to William Shakespeare, not much: “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” In this famous line, Juliet complains that it is Rom…
Stay Safe in the Hospital
A trip to the emergency room is stressful. The only reason you go is because of a health crisis. These days you almost have to be at death's doorstep to make a trip to the ER. That's because the waits…
Trust But Verify Your Medicine
One of Ronald Reagan’s most memorable quotes was “Trust but Verify.” He used this phrase dozens of times when speaking about U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. In his farewell spe…
Medication Mistakes Harm More Than 1 Million
Physicians are admonished never to let the cure be worse than the disease. And yet far too often the very medicines meant to soothe symptoms or overcome illness cause more harm than good. The Institut…
Hospitals Take Lessons From Supermarkets
Ever since 1999, when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its landmark report on medical error, health care leaders have been bemoaning the sorry state of American medicine. Authors of the study…
Medication Mistakes Are Common And Deadly
Millions of people are apprehensive about flying. It's more dangerous to drive to the airport than it is to fly across the country, but a lot of folks worry that there could be a plane crash. Imagine …
Medical Mistakes Still Take Too Many Lives
In 1999 the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) shook the medical community to its foundation. The IOM estimated that almost 100,000 Americans die in hospitals every year as a consequence of error…
Medication Mistakes Are Common And Can Be Deadly
When an airplane crashes, the public demands to know what went wrong. They also want the problem to be corrected so it won't happen again. The entire space shuttle program has been grounded since the …
How Safe Are American Medicines?
The FDA and the pharmaceutical industry like to brag that Americans have the safest medicines in the world. But recent revelations suggest that an increasing number of counterfeit drugs may be tarnish…
Hospital Errors Have Tragic Consequences
Mistakes happen. That's because humans are not infallible. People write illegibly or mumble unintelligibly. This leads to "little" errors, like mistaking one drug for another. Pharmacists tell us that…
Medical Errors Are Still A Problem
Ask physicians about mistakes, and if they are honest they'll admit that medical errors are common, especially other people's errors. In a recent survey in the New England Journal of Medicine more tha…
Children Vulnerable To Medication Problems
Children are at the mercy of parents and physicians when it comes to pharmaceuticals. If a grownup says "take your medicine," there's not much a kid can do. And that is happening more and more often t…
Medication Mistakes Are Common And Serious
To err is human, but mistakes are unforgivable when lives are at stake. That's why pilots go through a comprehensive checklist before takeoff and why copilots are always vigilant for any unexpected pr…