Patient identification error may be medical malpractice that can result in serious injury and sometimes death of a patient. This type of medical error can happen at any step of a medical process from lab testing to medication administration and even billing. A special report published by the ECRI Institute reviewed 160…
Medical Malpractice may have been committed on many American Africans who were previously diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A recent study found that some genetic variations that were linked to this condition were indeed harmless. These specific genetic variations were found more often in black Americans than in white Americans. Therefore many patients from…
251,000 people died from medical error in the US in 2013. This was the third highest cause of death that year in the US after cancer (585,000) and heart disease (611,000) according to estimates calculated by Martin A Makary, professor and Michael Daniel, research fellow at the Department of Surgery of Johns…
Urgent Care Centers have been opening all around New York City and the US these recent years but are they really safe? Here are the most common acute care medical malpractice risks: Patient is being send home with a very abnormal vital sign without a re-evaluation of that abnormal sign Poor…
Among the various types of medical malpractice suffered by hospital patients, misdiagnosis accounts for approximately 10% of patient deaths. In a recent Opinion Page from the New York Times, Sandeep Jauhar, a Long Island cardiologist, wants to Bring Back the Autopsy as a weapon to fight misdiagnosis. With the evolution of…
The FDA is warning that in rare cases unintentional injections of soft tissue fillers into blood vessels in the face can block blood vessels and restrict blood supply to tissues and in the worst cases result in embolization. The filler could travel to another part of the body and could cause vision…
When medical malpractice or medical error occurs at an American hospital or clinic, the victim of the malpractice or his or her family has the right to legally challenge the facility and obtain explanations and compensation. The story is very different for the 1.3 million active-duty service members of our…
Medical errors and adverse events are among the leading causes of death and personal injury in the U.S. According to a recent study in the Journal of Patient Safety the number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year. Serious harm seems…
Here is the 2014 top 10 Health Technology Hazards just released by the ECRI Institute. This list is developed every year and highlights the health technology safety topics that the ECRI Institute’s Health Devices Group believes warrant the most attention for the coming year. TOP 10 HEALTH TECHNOLOGY HAZARDS FOR…
An elderly woman with an history of pancreatitis was admitted for an emergency laparotomy after she showed symptoms of acute abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. The diagnosis was small bowel obstruction. Her heart stopped during anesthesia and she had to be resuscitated and sent to the ICU. She died there…