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While many palliative care quality professionals encourage the use of advance directives, a new report published in the bioethics journal Hastings Center Report by a University of Michigan internal medicine researcher and a professor of law and internal medicine claims that living wills dont and cant work.
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The National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, a consortium of five palliative care organizations, has released a set of clinical practice guidelines to promote quality palliative care in the United States.
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Is your health care facility reliable? If it wasnt, would you know it and would you know how to turn things around? While most of us would be inclined to reply in the affirmative, recent studies indicate that when judged by the more rigorous quality standards being applied today, few facilities in the United States would pass muster.
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A patient alleged that an equipment technician sexually assaulted her. After reporting the situation to several nurses, the patient was given medication to calm her, and she was discharged quickly thereafter. A Texas jury awarded the patient $300,000 based on the hospitals failure to provide treatment.
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A woman having an asthma attack presented at the emergency department. After she was hospitalized for three days, her daughter came to visit and found her non-responsive and blue. The patient was resuscitated; however, she was left brain damaged. The patients daughter brought suit against the hospital and attending physician. The jury returned a $5 million verdict in favor of the plaintiff.
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Question: Ive heard that the final Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act states that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will not sanction hospitals for inappropriate transfers during a national emergency if the hospital is the area affected by the emergency. Does a large-scale disaster in our community, such as an airliner crash, qualify?
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The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) in Huntington Valley, PA, has issued a special alert about lookalike packaging of two drugs that can lead to serious adverse events.
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Citing serious concerns about needle safety at Connecticuts largest hospital, a union representing hospital service workers has filed a formal complaint with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Washington, DC.
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The risk of giving advice to patients by phone should be well known to risk managers, and most have educated staff about what not to say to patients with questions. Add in the automated answering systems that urge patients to call 911 for emergencies, and you should be well covered in this area, right? Not necessarily.
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A closely watched case in Connecticut has some observers worried that health care providers will be discouraged from reporting information about physicians to state boards, other monitoring groups, and even a hospitals internal peer review system.
