-
The Office of Communications at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has launched a pilot program to provide Spanish language versions of the agency's Drug Safety Communications (DSCs). The Spanish versions are available at http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm263010.htm.
-
Knowing how to develop an individualized teaching plan for patients is a skill each newly hired nurse must know at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Therefore, a two-hour orientation gets them up to speed on how to access online resources to support the plan and document the teaching outcomes.
-
A year after Saint Joseph-London Hospital in London, KY, began a heart failure readmissions program, 30-day readmissions dropped from 27.7% to 15.9%. A similar program for patients admitted for acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) reduced the readmissions rate from 23% to 10% in a short time.
-
Each year more than one million patients receive cancer treatment in an outpatient oncology clinic. Despite advances in oncology care, infections from community and healthcare settings remain a major cause of hospitalization and death among cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
-
A 4% annual increase in the average claim size is responsible for the growth of long-term care liability costs, according to Aon Risk Solutions' "2011 Long Term Care General Liability and Professional Liability Actuarial Analysis." The study was released recently by Aon Corp. in partnership with the American Health Care Association.
-
Healthcare attorneys tell Healthcare Risk Management that they are privy to some things that might shock a risk manager, such as what really happens in the OR.
-
Emergency departments (EDs) can improve communication and patient care with simple strategies, says Gregory Cuculino, MD, an emergency physician at Taylor Hospital in Philadelphia.
-
A Texas hospital, its parent company, two surgical nurses, a nurse anesthetist, and a surgical tech are facing a lawsuit charging them with assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress after what the plaintiff says was a prank played on him while he was anesthetized for surgery. An appeals court recently ruled that the defendants should stand trial.
-
The state appeals court hearing the lawsuit brought by Chauncey Drewery against his former employer and former coworkers Barbara Wiedebusch, RN, and Kristien Williams, RN, was appalled by the alleged prank played on him during surgery.
-
In addition to any monetary payout from the defendants in the surgery prank case involving Metroplex Adventist Hospital in Killeen, TX, the individual defendants also might find their careers in jeopardy, says Alex J. Keoskey, JD, a partner specializing in healthcare litigation with the law firm of DeCotiis, FitzPatrick & Cole in Teaneck, NJ.
