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New research is showing that recombinant factor VIIa [rFVIIa] (NovoSeven) shows promise in the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The Phase IIb study demonstrated that the use of the hemophilia drug in ICH patients led to a significant reduction in hematoma growth when given within four hours of onset.
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A 16-year-old high school football star was in the back seat of a car when the driver lost control and ran off the road. He underwent emergency surgery at a hospital for a ruptured stomach. However, the treating physicians and staff failed to diagnose and treat his fractured spine. The delay in treatment and failure to immobilize the patient resulted in the teen-ager being permanently paralyzed.
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While recovering from emergency surgery, a 71-year old patient developed decubitus ulcers acute enough to cause nerve damage and necessitate plastic surgery. The hospital staff and two attending physicians failed to closely monitor the elderly patient during recovery despite his known underlying complications, which included alcohol dependency and heavy smoking.
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The University of Illinois Hospital has paid $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit that charged it and two other school-affiliated hospitals with manipulating patients diagnoses to get them new livers.
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The U.S. District Court in Cheyenne, WY, has awarded $50,000 to a woman stuck by a used needle while visiting a patient at one of Banner Health Systems hospitals in that state. A hospital employee had left the needle lodged in a heat register.
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Sentinel events at Childrens Hospital Boston have been traced to poor communication between residents and attending physicians, prompting a federal investigation and a plan by the hospital to overhaul how the two groups interact. The hospital is responding to the tragedies with a plan designed to make sure that attending physicians dont leave the younger physicians with too much responsibility by poorly communicating.
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Everyone in health care still is sorting through exactly what the final Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act rule means, and apparently the surveyors working for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are no different.
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If your institution is the lead story on the evening news, chances are good that it wont be for all the right reasons. Rather, youll find that the risk management department is suddenly faced with the challenge of saving the institutions reputation by saying the right thing in the right way.
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Hospital security often suffers from complacency and poorly defined roles for the security staff, says a specialist who helps health care providers improve their programs. One of the best ways to improve your security is to make sure your officers arent misused as impromptu assistants for all manner of scut work, he says.
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In addition to concentrating on the five conditions that lead to most ED malpractice claims, there are specific strategies you can employ to reduce the overall liability risk in that department, says Andrew S. Kaufman, JD, a partner with Kaufman, Borgeest & Ryan in New York City.
