Hospital Management
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Diagnostic Errors Often Prompt Patients to Sue
The main reason patients sue is for an adverse event caused by delayed, missed, or failed diagnosis. Another reason patients sue is due to failure of communication, which led to an adverse event. Efforts to convey a sense of caring can reduce the likelihood of a lawsuit.Avoid the Common Mistakes That Encourage Patients to Sue
Much of risk management is focused on avoiding liability and discouraging lawsuits, but what really makes a patient or family decide to sue? Much of the motivation comes from how they feel after interactions with physicians and staff — or the lack thereof. The biggest factor in a patient or family filing a medical malpractice lawsuit is the patient-physician relationship.FDA Approves AI Tool to Help Detect Colon Cancer
Machine learning gives clinicians another tool while trying to detect troubling signs during routine screening.
Record Number of Reported STD Cases for Sixth Straight Year
U.S. cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis rose almost 30% between 2015 and 2019.
Survey: Prior Authorization Hassles Persisted Mostly Unabated Through 2020
A public health emergency did not seem to remove many bureaucratic roadblocks, to the frustration of U.S. physicians.
FDA Lifts Restriction on Mifepristone Access
Federal rule had required women to pick up the drug in person only, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ethical Responses Needed if Clinicians Say Discharge Is Unsafe
For some patients, there are no caregivers at home. Others may be living in unsafe conditions. Ethicists can help by brainstorming scenarios, and trying to connect resources accordingly.
Novel Program Decreases Transport to ED for Hospice Patients
Ventura County, CA, paramedics underwent 30 hours of training on crisis counseling, grief, and palliative care. When EMS responded to a 911 call and determined a patient was in hospice, they contacted trained staff. During a three-year study period, the percentage of hospice patients transported to the ED was 36% in the first year, 33% in the second year, and 24% in the third year. This was compared to 80% of hospice patients transported, on average, during the six months before project implementation.
No Evidence of Bias on Pediatric Ethics Rounds
Researchers compared sociodemographic factors between patients admitted to an academic children’s hospital during ethics rounds in the PICU, PCTU, and NICU in 2017 and 2018 who were identified as having ethics issues and all other patients admitted to those same units during the same period. The researchers expected racial and/or socioeconomic differences between the groups, with socially vulnerable patients disproportionately identified as having ethical issues on rounds. But they did not find this to be the case.
Some Code Status Discussions Are Rushed, Incomplete, or Misleading
Learning how to engage in code status conversations is as important as learning how to perform medical procedures. Clinicians would not ask patients in completely neutral terms whether they want a procedure that has no chance of working or would inflict serious harm. Any conversation around resuscitation status should take into account patients' goals and values, what is important to them in life, and the minimum acceptable quality of life.