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A $3.3 million verdict against a surgeon who apologized to his patient's family for her death is leading some outpatient surgery professionals to wonder if the push for apologies and transparency has a dark side. Are managers encouraging physicians to say something that actually will work against them in court?
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A patient arrived from an assisted living facility with a documented allergy on the chart. Despite this safeguard, the patient still received an incorrect medication prior to the procedure. Fortunately, in this case, there was no lasting harm to the patient.
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Disclosing a medical error is never easy, but it can become especially complicated when you need to tell the patient that a previous provider was in the wrong. This delicate situation often requires communication with the other provider before you tell the patient anything.
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Educators often talk about "teachable moments," those times when the patient is ready to learn. This moment might be in a waiting area, exam room, or a hospital bed. To take advantage of these times, staff members in the Section of Patient Education at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, look for new ways to deliver patient education.
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My hospital has a contract to provide medical care to the county jail. At any one time, there are more than 10,000 inmates in the county jail facilities supervised by the sheriff's office. We often see patients who are in custody and have sustained trauma, sometimes from less than lethal weapons. In my humble opinion, these devices reduce the risk of injury to the law enforcement officer when attempting to arrest or control a violent individual, and they greatly reduce the risk of serious injury or even death to the violent individuals themselves. However, even these less than lethal force weapons can cause significant damage when used at close range or on individuals with underlying medical conditions that render them vulnerable to the effects of these weapons.
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Intensivists experienced significantly less burnout, work-home life imbalance, and job distress under an interrupted schedule vs a continuous (half-month) schedule. ICU length of stay and mortality were non-significantly higher under continuous scheduling.
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In this study, the authors attempt to develop a risk stratification score to predict bleeding in patients treated with warfarin oral anticoagulation.
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Field test results of a integrated microfluidic-based diagnostic device indicate that the potential "lab-on-a-chip" might be able to perform complex laboratory assays in a simple, convenient manner.