Universal Health Services, the company that operates the Two Rivers Behavioral Health System facility in Kansas City, is in the news for potential negligence, understaffing and even abuse at its psychiatric hospitals. Its latest quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that eleven of its psychiatric facilities have received subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Health and...
Read MoreWhen a Nebraska high school student suffered a concussion playing football this fall, there was good news. His school had taken the latest concussion research seriously and had a plan in place for assessing his readiness to return to sports. Unfortunately, there was no plan to assess his readiness to return to the classroom without risking further injury to...
Read MoreLeaving foreign objects in the body after surgery is called a “never event” — a mistake so preventable that it should never happen if basic procedures are followed. The sad fact, however, is that “never events” do happen, and this one can cause pain, physical injuries, infections and even death. The Joint Commission, one of the nation’s preeminent healthcare...
Read MoreLast year, an Oklahoma woman had no reason to wonder what a brachial plexus might be, let alone that injuring it might lead to a serious disability. She only learned about this anatomical feature because complications arose during the birth of her daughter. The term “brachial plexus” refers to twin bundles of nerves that begin at the spine near...
Read MoreLast week, an extremely disturbing story of hospital negligence was brought to light. A patient being treated for an infection at San Francisco General Hospital, that city’s main public hospital, went missing on Sept. 21. Despite a search of the grounds by both hospital personnel and sheriff’s deputies, her disappearance was a mystery until Oct. 8, when her body...
Read MoreA health writer for Yahoo recently put together a list of the top 8 mistakes hospitals commonly make in treating patients. The list ranged from unhealthy hospital food to breaching the confidentiality of medical records, but some types of hospital negligence can be dangerous or deadly. Here are some things to watch out for: Excessive wait times at the...
Read MoreA study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that some 40 percent of people who experience delirium in hospital intensive-care units may still be affected by cognitive problems similar to those from traumatic brain injuries three months later. Another 26 percent may still be experiencing issues similar to those of mild Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers...
Read MoreAs we discussed on this blog in March, there has been some controversy over whether too many American moms are choosing to have cesarean-sections mainly for convenience instead of medical reasons. While many mothers may be doing so, a study by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had mixed results. The group found some evidence that the overall...
Read MoreProPublica, the public-interest investigative journalism nonprofit, recently reported on an alarming new report by a NASA toxicologist who runs an independent advocacy group Patient Safety America. The report, published in the current issue of the Journal of Patient Safety, concluded that the number of people who die in U.S. hospitals due to preventable medical errors has been substantially underestimated....
Read MoreThis week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a 114-page report that finally quantifies how many Americans are sickened or killed by antibiotic-resistant infections such as MRSA and CRE (a drug-resistant bacterium related to E. coli). Tragically, while the agency intentionally reported the most conservative number, it found that at least two million people fall ill from...
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