Are Doctors More Prone to Medical Mistakes During Residency?
A medical malpractice lawsuit filed against Yale-New Haven Hospital raises some important questions on whether doctors undergoing training can be a threat to patient safety. The lawsuit claims a doctor still in his residency removed the wrong body part from a patient, one of the worst mistakes possible. Why was his patient so upset? The… Read more »
Tags: HospitalSafety
Posted in Medical Malpractice
Can Electronic Health Records Help Your Medical Malpractice Case?
Many hospitals around the country have beefed up their technological infrastructure by adopting electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs can pull the medical histories of patients with ease. For example, EHRs may contain which medications patients are on, demographic information, known allergies and prior health conditions. Having such detailed information can also be beneficial for medical… Read more »
Tags: HealthcareNews
Posted in Medical Malpractice
How Google Will Use Advanced Apps to Improve Patient Safety
Google is planning to use DeepMind, one of its acquired artificial intelligence companies, to improve patient safety for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). The app, named Streams, will identify tasks doctors and other health care providers must perform to prevent patients from succumbing to kidney failure. Streams will have full access to the… Read more »
Tags: HealthcareNews
Posted in Medical Malpractice
How Surgical Safety Checklists Prevent Medical Errors
Medical errors have horrific consequences for patients and their families, so it is important for hospitals to institute policies that help health care professionals avoid mistakes. Surgery safety checklists provide ways for doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists and others to double-check their work so mistakes such as operating on the wrong patient or body part can be… Read more »
Tags: PatientSafety
Posted in Medical Malpractice
Are Cyberattacks Putting Patient Safety at Risk?
One of the greatest dangers facing patient safety can be found over the internet. There have been recent cases of hospital computers being hacked. Hackers take control of hospital computer systems and then demand a ransom. The Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was the most recent target of hackers. According to the hospital, hackers scrambled patient… Read more »
Tags: HospitalSafety
Posted in Medical Malpractice
Hospital Horror Stories: What Are the Consequences of Wrong-Patient Surgeries?
Never events are medical mistakes that can severely reduce the quality of life for patients, or in the worst case scenarios, result in death. While some never events are worse than others, it is always patients who pay the price for these horrific mistakes. Wrong-patient surgeries are one of the worst possible never events, and… Read more »
Tags: PatientSafety
Posted in Medical Malpractice
New Federal Warning System Could Identify Dangerous Medical Devices
Medical devices can be extremely useful for diagnosing patients with health conditions, but these tools can also cause significant problems for patients. For example, duodenoscopes are used in tens of thousands of medical procedures, but are difficult to clean and could expose patients to superbug infections. Almost 200 patients in the U.S. developed infections from… Read more »
Tags: PatientCare
Posted in Medical Malpractice
3 Common Nursing Errors that Harm Patients
Nurses are hospital staff members most likely to spend an extended amount of time with patients. Unfortunately, nurses are notoriously overworked, often caring for multiple patients at once. There is only so much a person can do, so nursing errors are bound to happen. Sometimes these mistakes can have deadly consequences for patients. Medication Errors:… Read more »
Tags: HospitalSafety
Posted in Medical Malpractice
What Patients Should Know About CT Scans and Other Imaging Tests
Last week, we wrote about how more hospitals and doctors are overprescribing potentially dangerous imaging tests for minor health problems. Medical tests such as X-rays, CT scans and MRIs are being used to diagnose back pain, headaches, stomach aches and other common conditions. Although these conditions might be serious, the overuse of imaging tests can… Read more »
Tags: CTScan
Posted in Medical Malpractice
3 Ways Communication Can Improve Patient Safety in Hospitals
Communication is essential for promoting patient safety. When hospital staff members communicate with patients, each other and the public, it becomes more difficult to cause medical errors. These three examples can show how communication prevents common medical mistakes. Handoff errors: While receiving treatment at hospitals, patients are likely to fall under the care of multiple… Read more »
Tags: PatientCare
Posted in Medical Malpractice
