Nonprofit hospitals despicable practices of overcharging patients with no insurance and then using aggressive tactics to collect payments are being discouraged by new rules recently adopted by the Obama Administration. Under the new rules, patients with no insurance who are eligible for financial assistance can not be charged more than…
Device-related hazards can lead to medical malpractice. In its 2015 top 10 Health Technology hazards, ECRI Institute lists 10 safety topics deemed crucial for hospitals to address. Here is the list of the top 10 technology hazards; 1. Alarm hazard: inadequate alarm configuration policies and practice 2. Data integrity: incorrect…
After a first US patient died from Ebola yesterday in a hospital that handled the case in a very negligent manner (see article in Reuters), New York hospitals and airports are gearing up for the worst. Starting this Saturday all passengers arriving from the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia…
After visiting a friend at the Emergency Room of the New York Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center Hospital in Washington Heights in Manhattan, Senator Adriano Espaillat University said he was outraged by the horrendous conditions patients and staff had to deal with. People are lying on stretchers in the hallways, there is…
A diagnosis delayed by a too long wait time in an emergency room can be medical malpractice and can be deadly. In Bedford-Stuyvesant, patients checking in at the ER of the Brooklyn Interfaith Hospital wait an average of 125 minutes before they can be seen by a doctor. The hospital…
Recently more and more hospital patients have been receiving bills with hefty charges from unexpected out of network doctors or other medical service providers such as labs or Radiologists. Services that used to be included in the daily hospital rate now comes as additional costs because they are provided by…
Sharon LaFraniere and Andrew W. Lerhen from the New York Times continue to investigate Medical Malpractice in military hospitals. The two reporters who last June provided an in-depth analysis of the flaws of the military hospital system (see “In Military Care, a Pattern of Errors but Not Scrutiny” ) recently…
Tubing misconnection error is medical malpractice mostly caused by nursing or hospital negligence that can result in severe personal injury or death of the patient. Misconnections errors have a high risk to happen not only because most patients checking into a hospital are likely to receive at least an IV…
In 2012 there were more than 100 open lawsuits against the hospital including a dozen alleging patients died due to medical malpractice or negligence. The hospital has financial problems and struggles to stay open. The latest report from the federal Labor Department indicates that some employees have been the victims…
To reduce IV medication errors and possible contamination, the Belmont’s St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, NYC, just acquired a high-tech medication machine that uses robots to fill syringes, sanitize intravenous medications and make sure that patients receive the proper medication. When an error occurs with intravenous medication, harmful effects…