-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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?
-
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.
-
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.
-
Gene transfer research offers new hope for people suffering from some rare or deadly diseases, but the research also has suffered major setbacks due to serious adverse events, including subjects illnesses and deaths, and this creates a greater burden for IRBs reviewing such protocols, experts say.
-
OHRP is seeking comments from IRB members and others about proposed changes to the agencys registration requirements, which apply to all IRBs that review human subjects research conducted or supported by HHS.
-
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that fractures were the fourth-leading cause of injury-related emergency department visits in 2000, accounting for 3.8 million visits. Patients may develop serious and life-threatening complications of orthopedic trauma. Because signs and symptoms of these complications may not be readily apparent when patients present, emergency physicians and nurses need to be cognizant of high-risk presentations. This months issue focuses on these high-risk presentations, including open fractures, compartment syndromes, malignancies, and septic joints.
