Modern Healthcare (6/29, McKinney) reported according to the Joint Commission, “National rates of wrong-site surgeries-which include wrong procedure, wrong side and wrong patient-can reach as high as 40 incidences a week.” The Commission’s Center for Transforming Healthcare “partnered with eight hospitals and surgery centers for the project. Those organizations used robust process improvement tools to … Read more
Encouraging News… HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and David Cote, CEO of Honeywell International, write in a Philadelphia Inquirer (4/25) op-ed that the “Institute of Medicine estimates that as many as 100,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors in hospitals.” That number is equivalent to the “deaths caused by auto accidents, AIDS, and breast … Read more
If we could cut some of this financial waste, we’d all be in a better financial situation. The National Journal (4/8, Fung) reports, “As much as 45 cents out of every dollar spent on US healthcare is related to a medical mistake, researchers reported on Thursday.” In fact, “some kind of mistake or adverse event … Read more
PITTSBURGH – A western Pennsylvania newspaper says people in the commonwealth are paying millions of dollars for repeat hospital stays to treat complications or infections that might have been avoided. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says hospitals charged more than $1.25 billion for such readmissions in 2009, according to an analysis of the latest data from the … Read more
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (2/25, Fabregas) reported, “Hospital-acquired germs may have contributed to several thousand rehospitalizations in Pennsylvania,” according to a review by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. The group found that “23,287 people got hospital-acquired infections in 2009, or 1.2 percent of the 1.9 million patients admitted to hospitals statewide. Nearly 30 percent … Read more
If you or anyone you know is dealing with ovarian cancer, please read this. HealthDay (2/10, Preidt) reported, “More than one-quarter of women with apparent early-stage ovarian cancer don’t receive recommended lymph node biopsies to check for cancer spread, which nearly doubles these patients’ risk of death,” according to a study in the journal Gynecological … Read more
Reducing the epidemic of hospital acquired infections has been a primary goal for hospital administrators and federal regulators alike over the past few years. A prime cause of hospital infections, poor hand washing practices by healthcare workers, has been in the cross hairs. Now health care workers are encouraged to wash before each and every … Read more
The CBS Evening News (9/30, story 8, 4:20, Couric) reported, “America’s hospitals are places of healing and hope, but they’re also home to a growing threat. … An increasing number of patients are being infected with a new class of superbugs that are difficult, if not impossible to treat.” On a parallel note, the … Read more
The New York Times (8/24, D5, Rabin) reports that, according to a study published Aug. 24 in the journal Radiology, “certain nuclear-based breast imaging exams that involve injecting radioactive material into patients expose women to far higher doses of radiation than regular mammography, increasing their risk of cancer in vulnerable organs beyond the breast, … Read more
This isn’t a big surprise, but worth keeping in mind. Don’t believe everything you read. Be a smart consumer of health care! The Los Angeles Times (8/2, Roan) “Booster Shots” blog reported, “According to an analysis of drug trials published Monday, studies were much more likely to be positive — that is, showing the … Read more
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