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Five years after the landmark Institute of Medicine report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, not enough is being done to address medication errors, warns the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) in Huntingdon Valley, PA.
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This case involves several issues related to standard of care and possibly to causation, which are subject to review by the facilitys risk manager.
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Low back pain is a frequent patient complaint in the emergency department. In fact, the same patients may visit the ED repetitively with the same complaint. It is easy to be assuaged into thinking that these patients are merely seeking drugs, but to make that assumption can lead a clinician to miss the cauda equina syndrome and may result in a malpractice action if efforts are not taken to identify any new symptoms and signs in a patient with low back pain. This issue provides the reader with a solid understanding of diagnosing and caring for patients with cauda equina syndrome in the ED and the medicolegal issues that arise from failing to diagnose and appropriately treat these patients.
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In the aftermath of a tragic sentinel event traced back to poor processes, the appointment of a new patient safety officer at Duke University Hospital System in Durham, NC, raises several immediate questions.
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Current clinical trial evidence favors the use of aspirin or clopidogrel as first-line agents for the majority of patients with vascular disease.
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This condition preferentially affects large myelinated fibers of the posterior roots, may respond favorably to treatment, and may be a restricted form of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy.
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In a recent study from Japan, Toivonen and colleagues set out to determine how much more susceptible women experiencing placental abruption were to having a recurrence of this problem in a subsequent pregnancy. They scanned a database which encompassed 14,326 deliveries during a one-year period at a busy university hospital.