Did You Know You Can Check Your Hospital Safety Score?
Would you spend thousands of dollars at a restaurant without checking the reviews first? How about the hospital performing your next heart surgery? Checking a hospital safety score may help you avoid medical mistakes or being exposed to deadly superbugs. The Leapfrog Group is an organization obsessed with hospital safety. They conduct detailed surveys on… Read more »
Tags: Healthcare
Posted in Medical Negligence
How Are Patients Harmed by Radiology Errors?
Radiology errors can cause patients to suffer permanent disabilities or death. The case of former computer programmer Jennifer Drumm is a sad example. The story begins on a Friday night, when Jennifer Drumm checked herself into a hospital over a severe headache. She had called it “the worst headache in her life.” Jennifer’s doctor was… Read more »
Tags: Misdiagnosis
Posted in Medical Negligence
Is Your Hospital Guilty of this Common Mistake?
Patient identification mistakes are tragic and preventable. When these mistakes are made, patients have organs unnecessarily removed, are subjected to harmful treatments and given unnecessary medications. Take for example a recent case in Massachusetts, where a surgeon working as a contractor removed a kidney from the wrong patient! To be honest, these types of errors… Read more »
Tags: HospitalSafety
Posted in Medical Negligence
Can Political Opinions Affect the Standard of Care?
Presidential elections can bring out the worst in people, especially your friends, family members and coworkers. But what about your doctor? A new study conducted by researchers at Yale University claims the political affiliations of doctors might affect quality of care patients receive. The important question is: can it also affect the standard of care?… Read more »
Tags: Healthcare
Posted in Medical Negligence
Report Finds Surgery Mistakes Have Harmed Hundreds of Florida Patients
The Florida Department of Health is filing a complaint against a Florida doctor who allegedly performed a wrong-site surgery on a patient. According to the complaint, the doctor operated on the wrong vertebra of a 77-year-old man. The man spent two weeks in a rehabilitation center recovering from injuries caused by the surgery. Similar preventable… Read more »
Tags: TampaBay
Posted in Medical Negligence
Are Hospitals Silent When Patients Are Harmed by Medical Mistakes?
Medical mistakes have become the third leading cause of death in the US, but hospitals remain opaque on offering details when these errors happen. Hospitals may be silent on medical mistakes when patients or grieving family members have questions. This might be the case because hospitals may want to avoid liability when patients are killed… Read more »
Tags: PatientRights
Posted in Medical Negligence
What Types of Medical Mistakes Happen in Nursing Homes?
Nursing homes are places where the elderly and disabled can receive around-the-clock treatment. Unfortunately, some of these places can neglect patients and cause harm. In fact, a 2014 study published by Medicare’s Inspector General suggested 22,000 nursing home patients were injured in the span of one month in 2010. The report discovered 33 percent of… Read more »
Tags: AARP
Posted in Medical Negligence
Hospital Horror Stories: When CT Scans Go Wrong
Computerized tomography scans, also known as CT scans, use X-ray images from different angles to give highly accurate and visual imaging of soft tissues, bones and blood vessels. This widely used diagnostic test is one of the most accurate available, but it does come with some risks. We have previously covered blogs discussing how CT… Read more »
Tags: HospitalSafety
Posted in Medical Negligence
Are Overcrowded Emergency Rooms a Threat to Patient Safety?
Overcrowded emergency rooms can put patients at risk of death or injury from medical mistakes. Many of the common causes of medical mistakes, such as signoff errors, poor communication or failure to double-check work may be more likely to occur when health care providers are rushing between patients in crowded emergency rooms. Crowded emergency departments… Read more »
Tags: HospitalSafety
Posted in Medical Negligence
How You Can Protect Your Child from Medical Errors
In prior blogs, we have discussed how children can become the victims of preventable medical mistakes. For example, famous actor Dennis Quaid’s children almost died after being given blood thinners at 1,000 times the recommended dosage. Fortunately, new studies suggest you can protect your child from medical errors. A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics… Read more »
Tags: Pediatrics
Posted in Medical Negligence
