Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

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Nurse staffing directly impacts the safety of children in pediatric hospitals. According to a study, led by Dr. Tubbs-Cooley at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, children treated in hospitals with staffing ratios of 1 : 4 or less were significantly less likely to be readmitted within 15–30 days.

Each one patient increase in a hospital’s average staffing ratio increased a medical child’s odds of readmission within 15–30 days by 11% and a surgical child’s likelihood of readmission within 15–30 days by 48% according to the study published in BMJ Quality and Safety in Health Care

This research is coming few days after the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing bill was introduced in Congress.

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Regular mammograms allow early diagnosis of breast cancer and can save lives. For it’s annual May breast cancer awareness campaign, HCC invites New York City’s public Hospital Staff to “dedicate” their Mammogram to someone they love to promote mammograms awareness.

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Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating disease that occurs in 1 out of 10 early preterm infants and the rate of death is close to 30%. Survivors are at risk for short-bowel syndrome (caused by surgical removal of the small intestine) and neurodevelopmental disability.
Researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have found a new biomarker with predictive value for NEC above 80%.
“Early microbial and metabolomic signatures predict later onset of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants”, Ardythe L Morrow, Anne J Lagomarcino, Kurt R Schibler, Diana H Taft, Zhuoteng Yu, Bo Wang, Mekibib Altaye, Michael Wagner, Dirk Gevers, Doyle V Ward, Michael A Kennedy, Curtis Huttenhower and David S Newburg is published in Microbiome Journal.

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A new study conducted by Dr. Srini Tridandapani, of Emory University and presented at the American Roentgen Ray Society annual meeting found that adding a picture of the patient to every imaging study would decrease wrong patient error by five fold.

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Approximately half of the patients returning to the ER after being discharged will be rehospitalized. Congestive heart failure, is the primary diagnosis for return emergency department visits with subsequent discharge and subsequent readmission in 30 days. Frequent diagnosis for return to the ER and re-admission include problems with a device, sickle cell anemia and abdominal pain.

“Hospital readmissions within 30 days of inpatient discharge are frequent and costly,” according to Kristin Rising, MD, a fellow in the Center for Emergency Care Policy & Research in the department of Emergency Medicine in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine who is the lead author, of “Emergency Department Visits After Hospital Discharge: A Missing Part of the Equation” a new study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

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BR.jpgOur Partner, Ben Rubinowitz will chair the New York State Trial Lawyers Association Seminar Successful Examination of Expert Witnesses 2013 to be held on April 23, 2013, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM. The Seminar will be held at NYSTLA, 132 Nassau Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10038. Attendees will receive 3 CLE Credits in Skills. The Seminar will cover:

– Direct and Cross of an Orthopedist, Direct of a Radiologist, Cross Examination of the “Independent Medical Examiner”, Direct and Cross of an expert in a Medical Malpractice case,the effective use of Exhibits, How to deal with problem areas including the pre-existing injury, the professional testifier, the non-responsive expert witness, use of authoritative texts and the hypothetical question.

For more information and to register click here.

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In 2009, 21% of elderly enrollees in Medicare Advanatge received at least one high risk medication and 4.8% received at least two according to a redent study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine by Danya Qato, a pharmacist and doctoral candidate in health services research at Brown and Dr. Amal Trivedi, assistant professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown and a hospitalist at the Providence VA Medical Center

The study shows that the risk is much higher among residents of the South, women and people living in poor areas. The map below shows the percentage of seniors who received one or more high-risk medications in 2009 by region
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Credit: Danya Qato/Brown University

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For patients with end-stage liver disease, transplantation is the only treatment option to extend life, however because of the short supply of donated liver, candidate selection for liver transplantation presents challenging ethical issues that require balancing the principles of justice and utility.

A recent anonymous study among U.S. transplant providers shows that chances to get a transplant are limited for candidates with history of alcohol and marijuana abuse, HIV status, obesity, psychiatric diagnoses, advanced age or for those who are incarcerated.

National survey of provider opinions on controversial characteristics of liver transplant candidates“, by Katharine Secunda, Elisa J. Gordon, Min W. Sohn, Laura A. Shinkunas, Lauris C. Kaldjian, Michael D. VoigtJosh Levitsky is published in the April issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society.

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In “Beyond Mammography: New Frontiers in Breast Cancer Screening”, American Journal of Medicine, Jennifer S. Drukteinis, MD (Moffitt Cancer Center), Blaise P. Mooney, MD, Chris I. Flowers, MBBS, Robert A. Gatenby, MD, look at a personalized approach to breast cancer screening using new technologies such as low-dose mammography, contrast-enhanced mammography, tomosynthesis, automated whole breast ultrasound, molecular imaging, and magnetic resonance imaging. The study says this approach may lead to a better detection of breast cancer both in the general population and in high-risk groups, such as women with dense breasts.

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Failure to Diagnose Compartment Syndrome may be medical malpractice.Compartment Syndrome occurs when the pressure within a closed anatomic space (a compartment) becomes so elevated that capillary perfusion is compromised. Any closed anatomic space including the abdominal cavity is at risk of developing a compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is a surgical emergency. Surgical decompression by fasciotomy must be performed within eight hours of onset or permanent neuromuscluar damage may result. Failure to properly treat will cause necrosis of the nerves and the muscles in the affected compartment since the increased intracompartmental pressure leads to ischemia and thus loss of blood supply to the nerves and muscles within the compartment. Further complications include Rhabdomyolysis which may lead to renal failure,loss of limb and sometimes death.

The following video from Dr Nabil Ebraheim, Professor and Chair of Orthopedic Surgery at The University of Toledo, explains with great detail:

– What is Compartment Syndrome?