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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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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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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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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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Liquids on floors represent the biggest risk for falls in health care facilities, but risk managers often overlook the need to assess the fall risk of a particular area with wet surfaces, not dry ones, says an expert.
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The 2003 transplant error at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC, that led to the appointment of a new patient safety officer at Duke University Hospital System in Durham, NC, was traced to a lack of redundancy in the system that ensured donor organs matched the patient.
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Look ahead five to 10 years, and you may see a male contraceptive on the market, as well as a microbicide for women that offers contraception as well as female-controlled protection against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), say reproductive health experts.
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When the first combined oral contraceptive entered the marketplace in 1960, women began taking hormonally active pills for 21 days, followed by seven days of placebo pills, or no pills at all. This 21/7 regimen resulted in regular withdrawal bleeding every month. Such regular monthly cycles are a modern phenomenon.
