Colorado Medical Malpractice

New Colorado law makes doctor records available

2008-09-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

From http://paralegalslo.blogspot.com/ by Rohn Robbins
As of Jan. 1 of this year, physicians in Colorado are subject to new reporting requirements with the purpose of providing greater physician accountability to the public and ensuring greater transparency about physician competence.Known as the Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act, the law was the result of a campaign by the parents of Michael Skolnik, a 25-year-old who died following unsuccessful brain surgery. In a medical malpractice action following their son’s death, the Skolniks claimed that had they known about a prior malpractice action against the neurosurgeon who performed Michael’s surgery, they would have requested another surgeon. Read more...

May 2008 Update on Centre of Compassion in Healthcare

2008-05-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

The world of healthcare is changing direction and the Centre of Compassion in Healthcare is building the infrastructure to support the required culture change in our institutions.

A talented group of people have come together in New Zealand as the Board of Trustees of the newly registered, charitable "Compassion in Healthcare Trust".

A key strategy for the Centre for Compassion in Healthcare is effective networking and communication so our first investment is in the infrastructure to support the growing, worldwide network of health professionals and patients who are passionate about strengthening the heart and soul of healthcare.

A new website is being constructed at www.compassioninhealthcare.org and it is scheduled to be launched in July. The new website address is already being quoted in the media so, in the meantime, visitors are being redirected to this site for information. Anyone who registers their details on this (CLANZ) site will be automatically added to the database for the new network. Read more...

Home health abuses targeted

2008-02-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

By Jennifer Brown
The Denver Post
Abuses by home caregivers revealed in a new state report — including a woman left dying on a toilet and improper care that resulted in an amputated foot — are prodding lawmakers to seek more oversight of the industry.
Legislation filed this week would require agencies providing nursing, physical therapy and basic caregiving in patients' homes to be licensed by the state.

Colorado is one of just five states that do not license home health care providers, and the state health department says the inability to set minimum standards of care and perform inspections is resulting in increasing instances of deficiencies.

A not-yet-released report from the Department of Public Health and Environment, obtained by The Denver Post, cites some of the most egregious examples of neglect reported in the past three years: Read more...

7th Annual Mother's Tea CCA Fundraiser

2008-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

Mother’s Tea Saturday, May 10, 2008 11:00 AM- Westin Tabor Center - Downtown DenverBenefiting Cerebral Palsy of Colorado’s Statewide Family Support ServicesThe 7th Annual Cerebral Palsy of Colorado

The Mother’s Tea -- A Celebration With Purpose!
This remarkable celebration is all about honoring the spirit and devotion of some very special
Moms. Held in the grand ballroom of the Westin Tabor Center in downtown Denver, this year’s
Mother’s Tea will feature a champagne reception complete with grand pianist and complimentary portraits by Scott T Photography. Attendees will enjoy a sumptuous luncheon and relaxing day of entertainment that will include a keynote speaker, a very exciting fashion show and numerous giveaways.

The event will conclude with Celebrity Host, Dr. Stephanie Clements, announcing
the winners of pamper packages for six, community nominated, very deserving Mothers. These
elegantly prepared packages, which include spa services, dinner and an overnight getaway, are
the perfect gift for Mothers who so often place the needs of their children ahead of their own.
Deserving of Special Recognition

Over the years, CP of Colorado has witnessed the incredible difference that Mothers make in
the lives of their children with special needs. Whereas many Moms wear many hats, these
special Mothers are uniquely diverse in the care and upbringing of their children. Their lives
often revolve around medical appointments, special therapies and advocating for the inclusion
of their children in the educational system and throughout their communities. Their stories of
Motherhood demonstrate the selfless and extraordinary commitment, love and sacrifice that are
needed to help their children overcome the daily challenges they face.

Your Sponsorship Makes all the Difference!
Sponsorship of the Mother’s Tea is a wonderful expression of thanks and recognition for these
exceptional Moms. Your support not only helps Mothers attend the event, but also is used to
help fund CP of Colorado’s six, family-driven grassroots organizations within Statewide Family
Support Services. These services help thousands of individuals with disabilities and their
caregivers to unite to create systems change, share critical resources and provide lifetime
support and connections with each other.
801 Yosemite Denver, CO 80230 Phone 303-691-9339 Fax 303-691-0846 http://www.cpco.org/

Mother’s Tea
Questions and Answers

Question: What exactly is the Mother’s Tea?
Answer: A luncheon that celebrates the contribution, sacrifice, and commitment that Mothers make in the lives of
their disabled children on a daily basis. Attendees enjoy a champagne reception, complimentary portraits, lunch and
goodie bags. Additionally, the community is invited to nominate very deserving Moms to receive pamper packages,
including spa services, dinner and an overnight getaway. These packages are presented to nominees chosen by
women leaders in the community.

Question: Are only Mom’s of children with Cerebral Palsy involved?
Answer: No, Cerebral Palsy of Colorado was started 61 years ago by nine Mothers of children with Cerebral Palsy.
Today, CP of Colorado provides services to nearly 22,000 Coloradoans annually. CP helps those with any kind of disability
from mental illness to “at risk” low income families.

Question: When is the event?
Answer: The Mother’s Tea is Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 11:00 A.M. the day before Mother’s Day.

Question: Where is the event?
Answer: Westin Tabor Center, 1672 Lawrence Street, Downtown Denver

Question: What exactly would you like me to do?
Answer: Help us make it possible for Mothers of special needs children be able to attend the event.
1) Sponsor a table of ten (10)
2) Sponsor one or more Mom(s) at $100 each.
3) Help us find others who can sponsor a table or Mom(s).

Question: Can I attend if I wish?
Answer: Absolutely, and please invite your friends. The more the merrier!

Question: Can I nominate a Mom I know?
Answer: Yes. Please fill out the online form at www.cpco.org, click on Mother’s Tea

Question: Is my sponsorhip of Mothers to attend the event tax deductible?
Answer: Yes. 100% of donated “Sponsor A Mom” seats are tax deductible*.

Question: How do I sign up as sponsor?
Answer: Fill out the enclosed form and mail to Cerebral Palsy of Colorado.

*Please consult your tax advisor.

Explain A Medical Error? Sure. Apologize Too?

2008-01-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

NY Times - By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D., Jan. 1 2008
One morning not long ago, I got a call from the emergency room at my hospital. A young man — an intern, in fact, who had been on rounds that morning — had been admitted with chest pains. Could I come to evaluate him? Read more...

Measure born of couple's grief to become law

2008-01-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Rocky Mountain News - Dec 31, 2007
If only she'd known. The refrain kept running through Patty Skolnik's head as she mourned her son's death - a death she blames on a doctor who, unbeknownst to her, had been the subject of a malpractice claim in another state. Skolnik couldn't let go of the pain, so, with her husband and state legislators, she helped push through House Bill 1331. Like more than 25 other bills from the 2007 General Assembly, it becomes law Tuesday. Read more...

When Trust in an Expert Is Unwise

2007-11-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

New York Times
By DAVID LEONHARDT
A few years ago, an economics graduate student named Henry Schneider drove his dad’s old Subaru station wagon up to Montreal . He had heard about a Canadian consumer interest group that had done undercover investigations of auto-repair shops, and he wanted to try a more academic version of its experiment.

So when he arrived in Montreal , he handed the Subaru over to the mechanics working for the group, the Automobile Protection Association, for a complete inspection. They found that it had a small hole in its exhaust pipe, a blown taillight and several other relatively minor problems. Mr. Schneider took careful notes. But he also did something that no ordinary car owner would do. He asked the mechanics to show him how to mess up the car in a couple of serious but obvious ways.

They taught him how to loosen the battery cable (which can prevent a car from starting) and how to suck out coolant (which can leave an engine vulnerable to overheating). Armed with this knowledge, Mr. Schneider drove home to Connecticut and undertook a devilish little test. Read more...

Five diagnoses that call for a second opinion

2007-09-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN
After Marci Smith was told she had a malignant brain tumor, she had surgery and then made an appointment with an oncologist to receive chemotherapy and radiation. But Smith never kept that appointment. Read more...

Doc Arrested In FBI Sting; Kickbacks, Unnecessary

2007-08-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

As a workaholic neurosurgeon in Canada's resource-strapped health care
system, Patrick Chan did not always endear himself to colleagues in Calgary. His
packed caseload, one fellow doctor recalls, would often "saturate" the scarce
operating-room time shared by all the surgeons.

A-Doc Accused Of Faking Pts' Diagnoses, Treating Them For

2007-08-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

By Barbara Feder Ostrov
Mercury News

On the day of his cancer treatment, 87-year-old Dung Le lay on a table, his frail body sedated as needles loaded with radioactive seeds were
inserted into his prostate to destroy the malignant tissue his doctor told him was there. Afterward, the San Jose man was bruised, fatigued and hungry, having been forbidden to eat solid food for 24 hours.
Read more...

Lawmakers look for ways to help disabled - Video

2007-07-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

View this story by clicking this link
http://cbs4denver.com/video/?id=32829@kcnc.dayport.com

Doctor groups ask: Is prescription info used to improve safety or to boost sales?

2007-06-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

AMA faces storm on data sales - Doctor groups ask: Is prescription info used to improve safety or to boost sales? By Bruce JapsenTribune staff reporterPublished June 24, 2007

How do pharmaceutical companies know which doctors prescribe the latest and most expensive brand name drugs? They have inside information on the prescribing habits of virtually every doctor in the United States. Pharmaceutical and device manufacturers buy this information from the American Medical Association and from companies that match the AMA's data with pharmacy records. While such practices have gone on for years, the issue is expected to be a hot topic at this week's annual meeting of the AMA in Chicago, with some groups planning to protest during the gathering at the Hilton Chicago. "Doctors are not aware that companies are out there that know every prescription a doctor prescribes," said Dr. John Santa, an internist at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and consultant to the Prescription Project, which is part of a coalition trying to curb drug companies' access to doctor prescribing information. Read more...

The Joint Commission’s New Speak Up™ Program

2007-06-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

The Joint Commission’s New Speak Up™ Program
Urges Patients to ‘Know Your Rights’

(OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – June 8, 2007) The Joint Commission has launched a national campaign to help Americans understand their rights when receiving medical care. “Know Your Rights” is part of The Joint Commission’s award-winning Speak Up™ program that urges people to take an active role in their own health care.

Patients who ask questions and are aware of their rights have a greater chance of getting the care that they need when they need it. “Know Your Rights” provides tips to help people become more involved in their treatment, thus improving the safety and quality of care received. The campaign advises patients that they have a right to be informed about the care they will receive; get information about care in their preferred language; know the names of their caregivers; receive treatment for pain; receive an up-to-date list of current medications; and expect that they will be heard; and treated with courtesy and respect.

“Knowing your rights regarding treatment and care is the foundation for all interactions with your caregivers at health care facilities. Candid conversations between patients and their caregivers will help facilitate the delivery of safe, high quality care and ultimately, enhance recovery,” says Paul Schyve, M.D., senior vice president, The Joint Commission.

Specifically, The Joint Commission advises people to:

· Think about how family or friends can play a role – Patients should ask how to designate a family member or friend as an advocate who can get information and ask questions. It is also important to understand the decisions an advocate cannot make for you unless they have been legally assigned that responsibility through an advance directive or power of attorney.

· Understand rights related to information – The law requires health care providers to keep a patient’s health information private, so a form must be signed if a patient wants his or her information shared with his or her advocate or others. Patients also have a right to have care providers fully explain treatment options and risks.

· Ask questions before entering a health care facility – Discuss issues such as infection control, life support, spiritual needs, security, how to handle a problem or complaint, any procedures that cannot be done at the facility for religious reasons, and how to obtain copies of medical records and test results.

· Ask your doctor questions – It is important to know how often the doctor will visit during a hospital stay, who is responsible for care when the doctor is not available, what happens if life-saving actions are taken, and how care will be handled if a test or procedure shows that another procedure is needed right away

The Joint Commission’s “Know Your Rights” safety campaign is part of its Speak Up program. The basic framework of the Speak Up campaign urges patients to:

Speak up if you have questions or concerns, and if you don't understand, ask again. It's your body and you have a right to know.

Pay attention to the care you are receiving. Make sure you're getting the right treatments and medications by the right health care professionals. Don't assume anything.

Educate yourself about your diagnosis, the medical tests you are undergoing, and your treatment plan.

Ask a trusted family member or friend to be your advocate.

Know what medications you take and why you take them. Medication errors are the most common health care errors.

Use a hospital, clinic, surgery center, or other type of health care organization that has undergone a rigorous on-site evaluation against established state-of-the-art quality and safety standards, such as that provided by the Joint Commission.

Participate in all decisions about your treatment. You are the center of the health care team.

Consumers can download the free Speak Up brochure that provides specific guidance
to exercise their rights by visiting The Joint Commission website, www.jointcommission.org. Speak Up™ brochures also are available on understanding medical tests, recovering after leaving the hospital, preventing medication mistakes, preventing infections, preparing to become a living organ donor, avoiding wrong site surgery, and preventing errors in care.

All of the Speak Up brochures are being redesigned in an easy-to-read format and will also be available in Spanish. To sign up to receive future issues of Speak Up via e-mail, please go to www.jointcommission.org/signup to join the Speak Up listserve.

Family's fight for malpractice disclosure keeps son's memory alive

2007-06-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Centennial Citizen
By: Peter Jones, Staff Writer
It would be difficult not to feel the sadness that permeates the Centennial townhouse of David and Patty Skolnik.
David sits for only a few minutes to talk about his family tragedy before restlessly getting up to putter around the house and water plants.
Patty's warmth is immediate and welcoming, but the loss of Michael, her only child, has left scars that cannot be hidden by a bittersweet smile. Read more...

Ritter signs new law allowing patients to check doctors' history

2007-05-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

DENVER - Coloradans will soon get full access to doctors' professional histories thanks to a measure signed into law on Thursday by Governor Bill Ritter.
The measure is designed to educate consumers about any malpractice claims filed against their physician. The governor calls this law a "patient's bill of rights." The premise behind House Bill 1331 is a simple one: When you go to the doctor's office, they will always ask you for your medical history. Under this new law, you'll be able to ask for their history. Governor Ritter signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon with Patty Skolnik looking on. Skolnik's son, Michael, died after unnecessary brain surgery performed by a doctor who had a malpractice claim against him in another state. She had no idea about the doctor's history. Read more... Watch video...

Ritter signs a dozen bills, including one making doctor info available to public

2007-05-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News May 25, 2007
Michael Skolnik's life was cut short three years ago, his family says, by a doctor who performed unnecessary brain surgery after misdiagnosing him. Read more...

Medical Mistakes Bill Advances At Capitol

2007-04-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

(AP) DENVER A bill that would allow Coloradans full access to a physicians' history was approved by the House on Wednesday and sent to the Senate. The bill (House bill 1331) was named after Centennial resident Michael Skolnik, who died at age 25 due to what lawmakers called medical negligence. They said Skolnik underwent unnecessary brain surgery after he was
misdiagnosed with a brain cyst.

Governor Ritter signs Senate Bill 66

2007-04-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

Senate Bill 07-066 was signed by Governor Ritter on Thursday, March 22, 2007. Senate Bill 66 was sponsored by Senator Ken Gordon and Representative Alice Madden. SB 66 allows guardians of persons with disability, whose medical malpractice cases go to trial, have the same rights, options and obligations as far as investing the verdict money as they would have had if the case had been settled. SB 66 cures an inequity of the law that treated these two similar classes of people quite differently depending upon whether they were forced to trial or not.

Malpractice Database Now Online

2007-04-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

Consumers have a new tool to help them avoid trouble, when picking a doctor. They can now access a database of malpractice records in 15 states, excluding Colorado. But a push is on to add Colorado records as well...

Colorado-based HealthGrades is launching the first national physician malpractice database for the public. Until now, the public has had only limited access to physician malpractice judgment and settlement data, primarily through the individual state agencies that report the information.
Read more...

Mother campaigns for malpractice disclosure

2007-03-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News March 28, 2007
GOLDEN - The loss of her only son still a sharp wound, Patty Skolnik is determined to make Colorado the 16th state to publicize malpractice judgments against doctors.

Skolnik, of Centennial, appeared at a news conference Tuesday where Health Grades announced it has gone online with the first national data base with information on malpractice settlements against doctors. Information on malpractice judgments, settlements and arbitration awards against doctors from 15 states is available at www.healthgrades.com. Read more...

What's the trouble? How doctors think.

2007-02-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

by JEROME GROOPMAN, The New Yorker
On a spring afternoon several years ago, Evan McKinley was hiking in the woods near Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. McKinley (a pseudonym) was a forest ranger in his early forties, trim and extremely fit. He had felt discomfort in his chest for several days, but this was more severe: it hurt each time he took a breath. McKinley slowly made his way through the woods to a shed that housed his office, where he sat and waited for the pain to pass. He frequently carried heavy packs on his back and was used to muscle aches, but this pain felt different. He decided to see a doctor. Read more...

S.C. hospitals launching patient safety initiatives

2007-02-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

By JOHN MONK
The national debate about what the public should know about hospital errors and quality is intensifying. But hospitals, citing patient privacy, still are hesitant to release much internal data about patient safety and their staffs’ performance.
“You’re flying blind,” said Lynn Bailey, a longtime Columbia health care economist who says people can learn far more about the Fords and Toyotas they drive than about local hospitals.
But change is in the works in South Carolina. Read more...

Patients piling medical costs on credit cards

2007-02-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff January 22, 2007
Some doctors and hospitals are teaming up with financial-services companies to market credit cards to patients, reducing healthcare providers' dependence on bill collection, and causing more low- and middle-income consumers to pay interest on their medical debts. Read more...

The check's not in the mail

2007-01-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

December 27, 2006 - Chicago Tribune
If you get a bad meal at a restaurant, you expect the manager to tell you it's on the house. Similarly, if the plumber wrecks your sink instead of fixing it, you don't pay him. That's the American way of commerce. Do the job right or forget about getting paid in full.Except for doctors and hospitals. When they foul up big time, they often get paid more, the result of more surgeries and extended hospital stays. And that adds billions to the nation's medical bill--not to mention the toll in patient suffering and even deaths. Read more...

Nurses increasingly buried by paperwork, redundant duties

2007-01-05T09:15:00.000-08:00

By Jennifer Booth Reed
Nurses belong with patients.That's like saying teachers belong with students and athletes belong with spectators.But, apparently, patient care is not where they've been spending most of their time. "People just got inundated with the paperwork," said Dr. Nelayda Fonte, a Lee Memorial trauma surgeon who's watched the role of nurses evolve over the years — and not for the better. "Nurses are no longer allowed to be nurses." Read more...

The Most-Avoided Conversation in Medicine

2007-01-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

By PAULINE W. CHEN - Dec 26th, 2006
J. R. was an auto mechanic of French Canadian descent with a perfectly square gap between his two front teeth and the slightly off-kilter face of a retired boxer. Soon after I met him on the surgical ward, after he had been found to have cancer, he developed a habit of planting himself in front of me whenever I got within 100 feet of his room, to spin stories about his life, wax poetic about his girlfriend, and offer free auto-repair advice. Read more...

Doctor's bankruptcy filing provides malpractice haven

2007-01-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

By Phil Galewitz - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer - Sunday, December 24, 2006
Dr. Jacques Farkas thought he would be sued as soon as the surgical drill slipped from his hands and sliced the exposed nerves in his patient's lower back.
"This may be a lawsuit," Farkas told an operating room nurse during the 2001 procedure.

Two years later, Thelma McAloon did sue the neurosurgeon and JFK Medical Center in Atlantis. The mistake left the Boynton Beach woman with no control of her bladder or bowels, pain in her legs, numbness in her feet and no feeling in her vagina. Read more...

The Spine as Profit Center

2007-01-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

By REED ABELSON - Dec. 30th, 2006
Spinal-fusion surgery is one of the most lucrative areas of medicine. An estimated half-million Americans had the operation this year, generating billions of dollars for hospitals and doctors.
But there have been serious questions about how much the surgery actually helps patients with back pain and whether surgeons’ generous fees might motivate them to overuse the procedure. Read more...

Home-health providers penalized

2007-01-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

By Jane Erikson - ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Nurses' failure to communicate with doctors contributed to the deaths of two Tucson patients and led to substandard care of at least 30 others, state investigators found.

Each of the patients received care from one of four Tucson home health-care agencies: Dependable Home Health Inc., fined $6,000 for violations of Arizona Department of Health Services rules; Read more...

Hospitals, MDs Addressing Long Wait Time

2006-12-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beatrice Vance died of a heart attack. The coroner says waiting in the emergency room helped kill her. The 49-year-old woman's chest was tight with pain when she walked into the ER at Vista East Medical Center in Waukegan last July. A blood clot had lodged in her heart. Read more...

Medical Mishaps: Vital Doctor Info Withheld

2006-12-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

by Kirstin Cole
(CBS) NEW YORK - Kathy Lang is doctor shopping, turning to the Internet to find a physician. Read more...

Hospital doctors shut doors to new patients

2006-12-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff November 12, 2006
Most primary care physicians at Boston's top-tier teaching hospitals are so busy that they have officially closed their practices to new patients.

Callers to Massachusetts General Hospital's physician referral line, for example, are told that all, or almost all, of the hospital's 178 primary care physicians are not accepting more patients. All 42 internists at Boston Medical Center have had full lists since four months ago, and 108 of Brigham and Women's Hospital's 120 primary care doctors have closed their practices to new patients. Read more...

HIDDEN CAM NAILS DOCTOR

2006-12-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

By IKIMULISA LIVINGSTON
November 22, 2006 -- A doctor, two nurses and several aides from a Queens nursing home were arrested yesterday and face charges after a hidden-camera investigation revealed chronic patient neglect, authorities said.
A secret camera installed in a patient's room at the Hollis Park Manor Nursing Home recorded the comings and goings of staffers over five weeks, according to state Attorney General and Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer. Read more...

How to Get Out of the Hospital Alive

2006-12-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

By: Erin Hobday & Ted Spiker
We imagine hospitals as havens from illness and accidents, but they're also home to bacterial booby traps and medication mistakes. Here's how to leave healed, not hurt. Read more...

How to survive your doctor's care

2006-12-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

By: Ivanhoe Newswire
ORLANDO, Fla. -- There are 600,000 physicians across the country and 5,000 hospitals. And what happens behind those walls can be miraculous.
It can also be deadly. Read more...

To Catch a Deadly Germ

2006-12-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

New York Times November 14, 2006
WHAT kills more than five times as many Americans as AIDS? Hospital infections, which account for an estimated 100,000 deaths every year.

Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are calling for voluntary blood testing of all patients to stem the spread of AIDS, have chosen not to recommend a test that is essential to stop the spread of another killer sweeping through our nation’s hospitals: M.R.S.A., or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The C.D.C. guidelines to prevent hospital infections, released last month, conspicuously omit universal testing of patients for M.R.S.A. Read more...

Some seniors get too many drugs

2006-12-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Greenville News Saturday, November 18, 2006
After surgery for a broken hip, 85-year-old Bernice "Penny" Nichols slept round the clock for nearly three weeks. "There's something wrong with my mother," her worried daughter, Sue Rollins of Greer, remembers telling the doctor. "She shouldn't be sleeping this long." Read more...

How To Survive Your Local ER

2006-11-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

Parade Magazine - October 29, 2006
When Taylor McCormack was 13 months old, the shunt that drained excess fluid from her skull stopped working. She needed a new shunt-a simple procedure that involved less than an hour of surgery. Read more...

Rating Hospital Heart Care (Gannett special report)

2006-11-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

Hospitals vary in how well they treat heart attacks and heart failure. With this report, you can find your best local care providers before heart problems strike. Read more...

'Is This An Emergency?' Screening After-Hrs Calls Is Source Of Medical Errors

2006-11-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

By Sandra G. Boodman- Washington Post Staff Writer - Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The question is often asked by the answering service when a patient calls adoctor in the middle of the night: Is this an emergency? Now a new study casts doubt on the wides pread practice of screening after-hours calls to physicians. Read more...

Dialysis clinics: Milking the system

2006-11-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

Boston Globe - October 24, 2006
The method most dialysis clinics use to give patients a critical anti-anemia drug may needlessly cost the federal government as much as $537 million annually while generating additional profits for its manufacturer and clinics. Read more...

Squash the Bug: Why isn't the US killing off hospital infections?

2006-11-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

Slate.com - Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006
If you are an American admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam, Toronto, orCopenhagen these days, you'll be considered a biohazard.

Is It Disease or Delusion? U.S. Takes on a Dilemma

2006-11-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

After an avalanche of panicked inquiries from patients across the countrywho claim to have been stricken with a mysterious skin disease, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing to begin a full investigation. Read more...

Medicine In Conflict: Blurring the line between science and gain

2006-11-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

BUSINESS WEEK - OCTOBER 23, 2006
On Oct. 22, some 5,000 physicians will convene in Washington for five daysof discussions about high-tech heart treatments. Representatives of morethan 160 medical- device companies also will be there to promote theirvalves, catheters, and stents. Read more...

Hospitals Docs Who Perform Plastic Surgery Usually Not Req'd To Be Board Certified

2006-11-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

Kerri O'Reilly remembers waking up in the operating room last winter. The problem was that it was during her breast-reduction surgery, not after. Read more...

Survey: Not all surgeons, doctors willing to fess up to errors

2006-11-03T07:59:00.000-08:00

Naples Daily News - Saturday, August 19, 2006
Most would admit mistake, but only 39 percent of surgeons and 57 percent ofphysicians say they'd tell whole story. Read more...

Fixing America's Hospitals

2006-11-03T07:57:00.000-08:00

Newsweek - Oct. 16, 2006
No institution is doing everything right. But we found 10 that are using innovation, hard work and imagination to improve care, reduce errors and save money. Fresh fruit and digital record-keeping, anyone? Read more...

Under The Influence; Special Interest $$$ & Your Members Of Congress

2006-11-03T07:56:00.000-08:00

This site ranks members of Congress according to their acceptance of several categories of campaign contributions since the 2000 election cycle: Read more...

HealthGrades Hospital Quality Study Results

2006-11-03T07:54:00.000-08:00

Forbes.com - Before you check into a hospital, it maybe wise to check out the hospital's quality. That's because treatment outcomes at U.S. hospitals vary widely, depending on which state, city or individual hospital provides the care, a new report finds. Read more...

Website seeks doctors' take on drugs, and firms are crying foul

2006-11-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

Boston Globe - October 14, 2006
A Cambridge company that pays doctors to post medical observations on its website, including reports of drug side effects, has quickly incurred the wrath of pharmaceutical makers. Read more...

Whistleblower Lawsuit: HMO Shunned Pregnant Women

2006-10-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

NATASHA KORECKI - Federal Courts Reporter
Public money flowed to Chicago-based Amerigroup Illinois as the government gave it the job of signing up anyone in need of insurance who couldn't afford it. Read more...

Study Links Doctor Errors, Bad Diagnoses

2006-10-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

By PATRICK WALTERS - Associated Press Writer
Basic errors made by doctors, including tests ordered too late or not at all and failure to create follow-up plans, played a role in nearly 60 percent of cases in which patients were allegedly hurt by missedor delayed diagnoses, a study found. Read more...

Hospital horror stories: How to avoid falling victim

2006-10-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Anne E. Stein - Chicago Tribune
Four Chicago-area filmmakers are doing their part to raise awareness about alarge-scale problem that's far from being solved: medical errors in hospitals that cause injuries and death. Read more...

Sick but Insured? Think Again

2006-10-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Lisa Girion - Los Angeles Times
When Steve and Leslie Shaeffer's daughter, Selah, was diagnosed at age 4 with a potentially fatal tumor in her jaw, they figured their health insurance would cover the bulk of her treatment costs. Read more...

'Wealth care' is shaking up medicine

2006-10-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

By Linda Fantin The Salt Lake Tribune
The foyer at Evolutionary Healthcare has been used for book signings and art shows, and at least one couple has asked to exchange vows there. But it doesn't take a formal occasion to discover this is no ordinary medical office- just a hello, as in "Hello, Carol Osborn speaking." Read more...

Handful of docs behind most negligence cases

2006-10-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

JIM RITTER - Health Reporter
The elderly man had a bad heart, so Dr. Joshua Salvador gave him a pacemaker. But Salvador put the device on the wrong side of the heart. Read more...

A Risky Practice? Not Having A Heart Surgeon On Site Can Be

2006-10-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

By JOHN FAUBER
When her cardiologist recommended a heart catheterization and possible angioplasty, Patricia Stropes refused at first. Read more...

State's long disciplinary process doesn't protect patients, critics say

2006-10-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

By Phil Galewitz - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Dianne Hedrick of Royal Palm Beach had to have her left leg amputated after a doctor accidentally removed part of her artery during a varicose veinsurgery. Read more...

Physicians increasingly depend on spas for income

2006-10-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

By LAURA BEIL / The Dallas Morning News
When Dr. Bruce Katz scanned the list of attendees to the Medical Spa Expoand Conference in Miami last fall, his eyes stopped on one name. Aneurosurgeon. Read more...

Voluntary C-Sections Result in More Baby Deaths

2006-09-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Sept. 5 - By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
A recent study of nearly six million births has found that the risk of deathto newborns delivered by voluntary Caesarean section is much higher thanpreviously believed. Read more...

Doctors Often Overestimate Their Expertise

2006-09-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Sept. 5 - Forbes.com
Doctors often have a falselyexaggerated view of their own capabilities, a new study suggests. Read more...

Secret Courts In Florida

2006-09-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Judges in Florida have for years created secret dockets to hide the court cases of the rich and famous and now the state's Supreme Court Chief Justice wants to end the unorthodox practice that he calls un-American. Read more...

Drug Linked to Cataract Surgery Problems

2006-08-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Patients taking a widely prescribed prostate drug should alert their eye doctors before undergoing cataract surgery to avoid complications, several medical groups said Tuesday. Read more...

State loses in birth-injury case

2006-08-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

BY BILL MCKELWAY
The state shortchanged lawyers for families challenging the birth-injuryprogram by denying legal fees, then refusing to include interest whenordered to pay, the state appeals court said yesterday. Read more...

Duke funds to focus on patient care, safety

2006-08-29T07:26:00.001-07:00

By Liv Osby
A patient with prostate cancer faces a choice of treatments ranging fromsimply monitoring the tumor to radical surgery, but it can be difficult toknow which is best. Read more...

Lawmakers Sever Ties Between CDC And Big Pharma

2006-08-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

By Evelyn Pringle
In the wake of overhauling the FDA, lawmakers are also cracking down onconflicts of interest within the Centers for Disease Control. Read more...

Nursing homes: Business as usual

2006-08-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Consumer Reports - September 2006
Two decades after the passage of a federal law to clean up the nation'snursing homes, bad care persists and good homes are still hard to find In 1987, Congress passed a landmark law meant to improve nursing home carefor the elderly. Read more...

Lawmakers Say FDA Better Clean Up Its Act

2006-08-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2006. By Evelyn Pringle
For six years, the Bush administration has placed pharmaceutical industry interests ahead of public interest by appointing persons with strong ties todrug companies to high level positions at the FDA. Read more...

"We're not winning the battle": VA institutes universal MRSA screening

2006-08-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

By Alice Dembner, Globe Staff
The rapid spread of bacteria that causes skin infections in healthy people and can kill the seriously ill is spurring a search-and-destroy effort at hospitals across the nation. Read more...

AHA Profits Up 95%; President's Total Comp Climbs As He Retires ($1.86M)

2006-08-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

by Matthew DoBias
The American Hospital Association made a net profit of $18.4 million in 2005, a 95% increase from 2004 profits of $9.4 million, according to its Form 990 filed today with the Internal Revenue Service. The AHA had total revenue of $102.3 million last year, which was 12% better than the $91.3 million it notched in 2004. Read more...

Risky Rx: Pharma's Secret Strategies

2006-08-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

By Robert BazellChief science and health correspondent NBC News
We know that physicians meet a parade of drug company sales representatives from their first days of medical school to retirement and that they see drugads every time they pick up a medical journal. Read more...

Deaths, costs soar with MRSA infections: report

2006-08-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

by Cindy Becker
Pennsylvania hospitals reported 13,722 hospitalizations in which patientshad a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection in 2004, or atotal rate of 7.4 infections for every 1,000 hospitalizations, according toa research brief by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Read more...

Truth in medicine - or not?

2006-08-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

July 30, 2006 - Ask folks what they think are the worst problems about health care inAmerica, and many would say access to existing care. Others would sayinconsistent quality. Read more...

Lewisville Doctor Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

2006-08-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

By Josh Hixson, Staff Writer
Thu Anh Hoang, M.D., 38, of Lewisville, a physician practicing at the Lifetime Medical Group in Flower Mound, along with four doctors across the country and two others were indicted by a federal grand jury in Atlanta, on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Read more...

Board to Revisit Doctor's Case

2006-08-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

By Kevin Eigelbach, KY Post Staff Reporter Wed Aug 06, 2006.
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure will revisit the case of a physician as a result of his guilty plea Monday in U.S. District Court in Covington. Dr. Ghassan Haj-Hamed had been practicing medicine at his clinic in Cold>Spring under certain restrictions, but his plea of guilty to distributing controlled substances may change that, board Assistant General Counsel Chad Elder said Tuesday. Read more...

Too Many Doctors in the House

2006-07-14T07:12:00.001-07:00

July 10, 2006Op-Ed ContributorToo Many Doctors in the House By DAVID C. GOODMANDavid C. Goodman is a professor of pediatrics and family medicine atDartmouth Medical School.Hanover, N.H.CAN we cure our ailing health care system by sending in more doctors? Thatis the treatment prescribed by the Association of American Medical Colleges,which has recommended increasing the number of doctors they train by 30percent, in large part to keep up with the growing number of elderlypatients. But the most serious problems facing our health care system -accelerating costs, poor quality of care and the rising ranks of theuninsured - cannot be solved by more doctors. In fact, that approach, likeprescribing more drugs for an already overmedicated patient, may only makethings worse. Many studies have demonstrated that quality of care does not rise along withthe number of doctors. Compare Miami and Minneapolis, for example. Miami has40 percent more doctors per capita than Minneapolis has, and 50 percent morespecialists, according to The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, a study ofAmerican health care markets (for which I am an investigator).The elderly in Miami are subjected to more medical interventions - moreechocardiograms and mechanical ventilation in their last six months of life,for example - than elderly patients in Minneapolis are. This also means morehospitalizations, more days in intensive care units, more visits tospecialists and more diagnostic tests for the elderly in Miami. It certainlyleads to many more doctors employed in Florida. But does this expensiveadditional medical activity benefit patients? Apparently not. The elderly in places like Miami do not live longer thanthose in cities like Minneapolis. According to the Medicare CurrentBeneficiary Survey, which polls some 12,000 elderly Americans about theirhealth care three times a year, residents of regions with relatively largenumbers of doctors are no more satisfied with their care than the elderlywho live in places with fewer doctors. And various studies have demonstratedthat the essential quality of care in places like Miami - whether you aretalking about the treatment of colon cancer, heart attacks or any otherspecific ailment - is no higher than in cities like Minneapolis. Studies of individual hospitals have likewise shown that while thedoctor-patient ratio varies widely from place to place, more doctors do notmean better care.The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the University of California, SanFrancisco, Medical Center each have about one doctor treating every 100elderly patients with chronic illnesses in their last six months of life.New York University Medical Center has 2.8 doctors for every 100 suchpatients and the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center has1.7. The elderly patients at N.Y.U. and U.C.L.A., as compared with those atthe Mayo Clinic and the San Francisco hospital, see more specialists and aresubjected to more imaging tests and other procedures. But the quality oftheir care, as judged by doctors, is no better.Using the N.Y.U. doctor-patient ratio as a benchmark for determining thenumber of physicians that will be needed to care for the over-65 populationin the year 2020, we can project a deficit of more than 44,000 doctorsnationwide. But if the benchmark is based on the Mayo ratio, we can projectan excess of nearly 50,000 doctors in the year 2020.How can it be that more spending and greater physician effort does not leadto better health or to improvements in patient satisfaction? One explanationmay be that when more doctors are around, patients spend more time inhospitals, and hospitals are risky places. More than 100,000 deaths a yearare estimated to be caused by medical mishaps.The association of medical colleges has argued that increasing the doctorsupply overall can remedy regional shortages. But in the past 20 years, asthe number of doctors per capita grew by more than 50 percent, according toour measurements, most of the new ones settled in areas where the supply wasalready above average - places like Florida or New York - rather than inregions that lack doctors, like the rural South. Medical training is anexpensive business, and it makes little sense to waste additional publicdollars to perpetuate doctors' preference to live in affluent places.By training more doctors than we need, we will continue to fill morehospital beds, order more diagnostic tests - in short, spend more money. Butour resources would be better directed toward improving efforts to preventillness and manage chronic ailments like diabetes and heart disease. Better coordination of care is also worth investment. Small physician groupsin disconnected offices often provide fragmented treatments, whilemultispecialty practices integrated with hospitals - prevalent inMinneapolis and some other cities - are associated with lower cost andhigher quality of care. All these strategies have been shown to improve patient outcomes withoutadding physicians. Instead of training more doctors, let's make better useof the ones we already have.

Internal Review Questions FDA's Commitment To Drug Safety

2006-07-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

An internal report has faulted the Food and Drug Administration for not aggressively following up with drug manufacturers to monitor their progress in conducting safety studies.

The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has conducted a review of FDA monitoring performance, finding that 35 percent of status reports that drug makers were supposed to file in fiscal year 2004 were missing entirely or contained no information on agreed-to studies.

"Monitoring post-marketing study commitments is not a top priority," the study concluded.

Post-marketing studies are conducted once a drug has been approved for the marketplace. They can be important because the actual approval is often based on limited clinical trials. Aftermarket studies can reveal what unforeseen effects the drug is having among the population using it.

Though it was not revealed by an post-market study, problems with the pain reliever Vioxx did not emerge until the drug had been in use for a number of years. It was, in fact, another set of clinical trials that established a link between the popular arthritis drug made by Merck & Co. and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

According to the Inspector General's report, only about half of new drug applications approved from 1990 through 2004 included at least one commitment for a postmarketing study.

But the report concludes that the FDA cannot readily identify what kind of progress drug companies are making with their studies. The report further found that even the status reports that are completed sometimes leave out data that would help the agency monitor the progress of safety studies.

The FDA took issue with the report, saying the conclusion that it cannot monitor safety studies is not accurate.

Grading Surgeons May Be Healthy Practice

2006-07-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

"In a society that champions consumer choice and market forces as the bestways to do nearly everything, medicine stands out as an exception. Most Americans know very little about choosing, say, a heart surgeon. They simply take their primary-care physician's advice or blindly pick asurgeon from those covered by their insurance plan. For more than a decade,a handful of states, notably Pennsylvania and New York, have been issuingpublic report cards on individual surgeons that show the rates of death andcomplication of their heart-bypass patients. After all, practicing doctorsand nurses know which surgeons are good, and which are to be avoided.Shouldn't the rest of us know, too? But report cards remain surprisinglycontroversial, and not only among doctors being graded. Daniel Kessler, aStanford University economist, divides the debate into three camps. One saysreport cards boost the quality of health care. A second says they don't havemuch effect, good or bad, because ordinary patients ignore them."Wall Street Journal, David Wessel Read the Full Article

Despite Heart Attack Deaths, PolyHeme Still Being Tested On Trauma Patients

2006-07-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.defrance.org/artman/publish/article_1531.shtml

Forget tort reform. The Democrats have a better diagnosis.

2006-07-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

By Ezra KleinPosted Tuesday, July 11, 2006, at 6:20 AM ET
The Republican answer to runaway health-care spending is to cap jury awards in medical malpractice suits. For the fifth time in four years, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tried and failed to cap awards at $250,000 during his self-proclaimed "Health Care Week" in May. But this time, the Democrats put a better idea on the table.
Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also want to save on health care. But rather than capping jury awards, they hope to cut the number of medical malpractice cases by reducing medical errors, as they explain in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. In other words, to the Republicans, suits and payouts are the ill. To the Democrats, the problem is a slew of medical injuries of which the suits are a symptom. The latest evidence shows the Democrats' diagnosis to be right.
The best attempt to synthesize the academic literature on medical malpractice is Tom Baker's The Medical Malpractice Myth, published last November. Baker, a law professor at the University of Connecticut who studies insurance, argues that the hype about medical malpractice suits is "urban legend mixed with the occasional true story, supported by selective references to academic studies." After all, including legal fees, insurance costs, and payouts, the cost of the suits comes to less than one-half of 1 percent of health-care spending. If anything, there are fewer lawsuits than would be expected, and far more injuries than we usually imagine.
As proof, Baker marshals an overwhelming array of research. The most impressive and comprehensive study is by the Harvard Medical Practice released in 1990. The Harvard researchers took a huge sample of 31,000 medical records, dating from the mid-1980s, and had them evaluated by practicing doctors and nurses, the professionals most likely to be sympathetic to the demands of the doctor's office and operating room. The records went through multiple rounds of evaluation, and a finding of negligence was made only if two doctors, working independently, separately reached that conclusion. Even with this conservative methodology, the study found that doctors were injuring one out of every 25 patients—and that only 4 percent of these injured patients sued.
The Harvard study stands for a large body of literature. On their own, however, the results don't disprove the Republicans' thesis that many medical malpractice suits are frivolous. Maybe badly injured patients don't sue, while the reflexively litigious clog up the legal system, making tort reform a viable solution. But a new study, released in May, demolishes that possibility. Dr. David Studdert led a team of eight researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham Young University who examined 1,452 medical malpractice lawsuits. They found that more than 90 percent of the claims showed evidence of medical injury, which means they weren't frivolous. In 60 percent of these cases, the injury resulted from physician wrongdoing. In a quarter of the claims, the patient died.
When baseless medical malpractice suits were brought, the study further found, the courts efficiently threw them out. Only 150 of the cases in which the researchers couldn't detect injury received even token compensation. Indeed, a bigger problem was that 256 cases were thrown out of court despite evidence of harm to patients by physicians. The other 1,046 cases, in the research team's opinion, were decided correctly, with damage awards going to the injured and dismissal foiling the frivolous suits.
Nor is there evidence to show that the level of jury awards has shot up. A recent RAND study looked at the growth in malpractice awards between 1960 and 1999. "Our results are striking," the research team concluded. "Not only do we show that real average awards have grown by less than real income over the 40 years in our sample, we also find that essentially all of this growth can be explained by changes in observable case characteristics and claimed economic losses."
Which brings us back to the Republicans' and Democrats' divergent approaches. The Obama-Clinton legislation fits well with Studdert's and RAND's findings. It also builds on successful efforts by the nation's anesthesiologists and a few hospitals to reduce their medical malpractice payouts.
Anesthesiologists used to get hit with the most malpractice lawsuits and some of the highest insurance premiums. Then in the late 1980s, the American Society of Anesthesiologists launched a project to analyze every claim ever brought against its members and develop new ways to reduce medical error. By 2002, the specialty had one of the highest safety ratings in the profession, and its average insurance premium plummeted to its 1985 level, bucking nationwide trends. Similarly, feeling embattled by a high rate of malpractice claims, the University of Michigan Medical System in 2002 analyzed all adverse claims and used the data to restructure procedures to guard against error. Since instituting the program, the number of suits has dropped by half, and the university's annual spending on malpractice litigation is down two-thirds. And at the Lexington, Ky., Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a program of early disclosure and settlement of malpractice claims lowered average settlement costs to $15,000, compared with $83,000 for other VA hospitals.
Clinton and Obama would offer federal grants and support to unroll such programs nationwide. And they want to create a national database to track incidents of malpractice and fund research into standards, procedures, and technologies that would prevent future injuries. So, what say you, Bill Frist? It is time for another Health Care Week?

Artificial Blood Experiment: Is Your City Participating?

2006-07-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

ABC World News Tonight July 7, 2006, By ASA R. ESLOCKER and ASTRID HILL

July 7, 2006 - - Northfield Lab's experimental blood substitute Polyheme iscurrently in randomized phase III clinical trials recruiting patientswithout informed consent all over the country. At one point, it was beingtested in as many as 27 cities; it is still being tested in 23 hospitals in20 cities. With the FDA's approval, Northfield Lab has recruited hospitals toparticipate in the trial study with exemption from informed consentrequirements on study participants. Although Northfield Lab claims thatextensive information on the study has been made public, a vast majority ofthe general public has never heard of the trial.Below is a list of the cities and hospitals that are currently participatingin the Polyheme trials. Check the list to see if you live an area where youcould become a trial participant without your informed consent. To opt out of the study, contact Northfield Labs(http://www.northfieldlabs.com/contact.html) or a participating hospital andrequest a blue bracelet. If worn, you will be exempt from the trial.CaliforniaUC San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, Calif.; No longer recruiting Scripps Mercy, San Diego, Calif.; No longer recruitingColoradoDenver Health Medical Center, Denver, Colo.DelawareChristiana Hospital, Newark, Del.GeorgiaMedical Center of Central Georgia, Macon, Ga.IllinoisLoyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Ill.IndianaWishard Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, Ind. Methodist Hospital of Indiana, Indianapolis, Ind. KansasUniversity of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kan.KentuckyUniversity of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, Ky.MichiganDetroit Receiving Hospital, Detroit, Mich. Sinai Grace Hospital, Detroit, Mich. MinnesotaThe Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.New YorkAlbany Medical Center, Albany, N.Y.; SuspendedNorth CarolinaDuke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.OhioMetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio; Suspended University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio PennsylvaniaLehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, Penn.; No longer recruiting St. Luke's Regional Resource Trauma Center, Bethlehem, Penn.Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Penn.TennesseeUniversity of Tennessee-Memphis, Memphis, Tenn. Johnson City Medical Center, Johnson City, Tenn.; SuspendedTexasMemorial-Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas; No longer recruiting Memorial-Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas; No longer recruiting University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam, Houston, TexasUtahUniversity of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, Utah LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, UtahVirginiaSentara Norfolk Hospital, Norfolk, Va.; No longer recruiting Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, Richmond, Va.Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Va.; Suspended West VirginiaWest Virginia University/Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center, Morgantown, WestVa.(source: www.clinicaltrials.gov where it says "Verified by NorthfieldLaboratories June 2006)(http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00076648?order=1)Copyright (c) 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

FDA to Weigh Using Fake Blood in Trauma Trial

2006-07-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

July 11, Wall Street Journal

By THOMAS M. BURTONIf the U.S. Navy gets its way, hundreds of civilian trauma patients could --without their consent -- be given a blood substitute that has been linked inother large clinical studies to increases in hypertension, heart attacks andother serious cardiac problems.The Food and Drug Administration has blocked the new Navy trial three timesin the past year, but now is reconsidering after months of jockeying amongthe Navy, the agency and Biopure Corp., the Cambridge, Mass., maker of theblood substitute.The agency has scheduled a closed-door hearing for next week on whether theNavy-designed trial can proceed. More than 900 badly hemorrhaging civilianaccident victims around the country would be involved, with paramedicsgiving some the blood substitute, called Hemopure, and others salinesolution en route to hospitals.Such non-consent studies are rare but legal where federal regulatorsdetermine there's no practical way to obtain consent, such as when patientsare in shock or unconscious. There also must be a reasonable likelihood thatindividual patients would benefit from the treatment under scrutiny.Scientists have been hunting for a safe, workable blood substitute fordecades. Artificial blood, with oxygen-carrying ability, could eliminate theneed to match blood types of donor and recipient in some settings, and enjoya far longer shelf life than donor blood. It could also reduce the risk ofhepatitis or HIV infection, although donor blood has become very safe overthe past two decades.The Navy, which provides all medical care for injured U.S. marines andsailors, has been particularly eager for a workable blood substitute. Donorblood lasts only about 42 days before its oxygen-carrying capacity isdiminished, while artificial blood could be stored aboard ships for anestimated three years.But efforts to develop blood substitutes have encountered safety problemsover the years. Some companies have gone out of business or exitedblood-substitute research when past efforts failed.Northfield Laboratories of Evanston, Ill., is nearing completion of acivilian non-consent study involving its own blood substitute, PolyHeme, and720 trauma patients around the country. In a previous trial of surgerypatients, 10 of 81 people who received PolyHeme suffered heart attacks,versus zero of 71 receiving donor blood. Northfield says it doesn't believeits product caused the heart attacks, but the Securities and ExchangeCommission and Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate FinanceCommittee, are investigating whether the company properly disclosed thoseresults in federal filings and community meetings. Northfield says it iscooperating with the investigations but declined to comment further. Nine ofthe original 31 medical centers that agreed to participate in the trial areno longer testing patients with PolyHeme.Past studies have raised questions about Biopure's Hemopure as well. In1998, the company began a clinical study comparing its substitute with donorblood in consenting orthopedic-surgery patients. William G. Hoffman, thenBiopure's medical director and now director of cardiac-surgery critical careat Massachusetts General Hospital, says he concluded during the study thatthe blood substitute wasn't working well and was "harmful," and urgedBiopure to stop the trial. Edward Jacobs, a Biopure founder and then seniorvice president, says the company consulted outside cardiologists and "theiropinion was to go ahead."Evidence from that study, along with a separate study in general surgerypatients, linked Hemopure to more complications such as strokes andmini-strokes than donor blood, FDA documents show. Biopure disputes some ofthe FDA numbers. But in a draft response to the agency, Biopure acknowledgesthat there were more cases of cardiac arrest, more fluid in the lungs andmore hypertension among patients who got Hemopure than those who receiveddonor blood.Navy officials declined to comment on why they want to conduct a trial witha product that has shown such negative side effects. But in documentssubmitted to the FDA, the Navy has maintained that a study of traumapatients would be significantly different from the trial with surgerypatients. The Navy also argues that the oxygen-carrying capacity ofBiopure's product could lower the death rate in trauma patients by 25%versus patients getting saline. "If we could replace saline with the thingthat we need most, oxygen-carrying capacity, that would be the best," saysthe Navy's Surgeon General Vice Admiral Donald Arthur. "Our interest is infield conditions where there is no blood."Biopure's vice president for medical affairs, A. Gerson Greenburg, says thecompany's product "has an acceptable safety profile" and that a bloodsubstitute can serve "a societal good whereby you're saving [donor] bloodfor other people." He says many adverse events in past studies weren'tnecessarily linked to Hemopure.The Navy proposed the new study of civilian trauma patients in 2004, sayingthat conducting such a study in combat wouldn't be practical. Documents showthe FDA concluded, based on its review of existing Biopure research onsurgery patients, that there were "highly significant differences" showingmore "serious adverse events" with Hemopure than with blood. On July 8,2005, the FDA told the Navy its study couldn't proceed "because subjectswould be exposed to an unreasonable and significant risk of injury."Daniel Freilich, who heads Navy blood-substitute research, responded with aseries of letters criticizing the FDA, writing in one that the agency'sstance "is not scientifically and clinically rigorous." The Navy also arguedthat the FDA had permitted Biopure's competitor, Northfield, to pursue itsown study with a similar product.On Oct. 13, Biopure CEO Zafiris G. Zafirelis wrote to Jesse Goodman,director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,suggesting that an FDA reviewer wasn't objective and had a possible conflictof interest. In March, the FDA's Dr. Goodman wrote to Mr. Zafirelis that hehad assigned three other high-ranking officials to preside over Biopuredecisions, according to the people familiar with the matter.Earlier this year, the FDA scheduled the advisory panel meeting for nextweek. In an unusual step, the Navy, the sponsor of the proposed research,was able to recommend some doctors to be on the panel. Additionally, twowell-known skeptics of substitutes who initially had been named as advisoryconsultants to the panel -- Charles Natanson, a critical-care specialistwith the National Institutes of Health and John Hess, director of theUniversity of Maryland's blood bank -- have in recent weeks been disinvited.Neither FDA officials, Dr. Natanson, Dr. Hess nor Dr. Goodman would commentfor this article.

DEATHS LAUNCH NEW PROBE

2006-07-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

State Health Department investigating after two children, 7 and 1, die following treatment at Stony Brook University HospitalBY RIDGELY OCHSNewsday Staff Writer
The recent unexpected deaths of two children at Stony Brook University Hospital have prompted investigations by the state Department of Health.The department is investigating the June 26 death of 7-year-old Tyler Poole of West Islip following routine adenoid surgery. It also is continuing to probe the May 13 death of 1-year-old Amee Martin of Mastic.Citing a federal confidentiality law, the hospital declined to identify Tyler or Amee, or to otherwise discuss the cases, but the families involved confirmed the basic facts of the cases.Amee's mother, Judee, said the hospital told her that her daughter died from an overdose of papaverine, a drug that expands blood vessels. Amee was brought to the hospital because she suddenly stopped breathing, her mother said. The drug, which is supposed to be diluted for children, was given at full strength, according to hospital sources. Martin, whose daughter had a previous breathing episode on March 2 and was saved by two Suffolk police officers, said she is awaiting a hospital report before deciding whether to discuss her daughter's case in detail. "The nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit were phenomenal," she said. "However, what happened should never have happened."The health department said it is "reviewing all aspects on the care the child received, including allegations of medication overdose." Richard Poole said his son Tyler's heart stopped for unknown reasons June 26 after "simple in-and-out" surgery to remove his adenoids. Although his son suffered from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, he said all precautions appeared to have been taken to ensure his son's safety. "I pray that is the case," said Poole, who added he hoped his son's death would raise awareness of the genetic disease, especially through the nonprofit group Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy.Health department spokesman Robert Kenny said the hospital reported Amee's death to the department. The state's investigation into Tyler's death was prompted by an inquiry from a Newsday reporter, though the hospital reported it after that inquiry was made.The state investigates any "unexpected" deaths - those unanticipated given the patient's diagnosis - as well as medication or surgery errors, all of which hospitals are required to report to the state, Kenny said. Complaints can also trigger an investigation.He also said it was not unusual for a hospital to have two ongoing investigations."We never want to see it but it's not out of the ordinary," said Kenny, who said he could not predict when the investigations would be completed. In 2002, the health department cited Stony Brook for a number of deficiencies following the death of 6-day-old Gianni Vargas of Brentwood, who died after he was given 10 times the proper dose of potassium chloride. The health department found that the staff did not follow proper procedures to ensure dilution of the potassium chloride, that there was a lack of coordination among various departments, and that the pharmacy computer system was unable to detect dosing errors.The 504-bed Stony Brook facility, Suffolk's largest hospital, is the only one in the county to provide highly specialized or "tertiary" care. Although it would not discuss the details of the current cases, the hospital defended its "outstanding record of patient safety." It cited an overall mortality rate of 1.78 percent from January to April of this year, which it said is lower than a 2.3 percent rate from a consortium of university hospital centers it uses as a benchmark. "This success was achieved even while caring for the region's most acute patients," the hospital said in a statement. However, Yosef Dlugacz, senior vice president for quality management for North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, questioned whether overall mortality is "a quality indicator to be used as a benchmark in comparing one hospital's performance against another hospital's performance." Dlugacz, who is publishing a book on health care quality measurements next month, said he prefers comparing outcomes from a particular diagnosis or procedure. That's how most hospital report cards are compiled.The hospital also defended its efforts to ensure patient safety. "Stony Brook University Hospital has patient care quality and safety as its first priority and participates in Patient Safety Net, an online reporting system that makes it possible for anyone in the hospital to anonymously report a patient safety concern or issue," the hospital said in a statement.It is also participating in a nationwide program designed by Stanford University and in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign to reduce avoidable patient deaths. "We exceeded our goal and have, using risk-adjustment methods, saved an estimated 130 lives over the past 18 months," the statement said.Cases of concernCiting two recent deaths, a senior Stony Brook University Hospital surgeon has raised questions about "patient safety" there. Following are some cases that have prompted state reviews.June 26, 2006: Tyler Poole, 7, of West Islip, died after routine adenoid surgery. Cause of death is unknown. May 13, 2006: Amee Martin, 1, of Mastic, died from an apparent overdose of /papaverineSeptember 2003: "Baby Doe" of Suffolk County died of heart illness following cardiac surgery.February 2002: Gianni Vargas, 6 days old, of Brentwood, died after he was given 10 times the dose of potassium chloride. August 1995: Petra Fiel, 8 days old, of Ronkonkoma, was given 10 times the correct dose of morphine. She recovered.Medication errors statewide, 20055 Resulted in permanent harm to patient10 Resulted in near-death situation11 Resulted in death of patientSTATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Doctor shares concerns over safety

2006-07-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

BY RIDGELY OCHSNewsday Staff Writer
One of Stony Brook University Hospital's own high-ranking heart surgeons is going public with concerns for patient safety at the facility, following the deaths of two children there.The deaths, which have occurred within the last two months, "appear to raise serious concerns about the safety net for patient care at the hospital," said Dr. Irvin Krukenkamp, who is associate dean for cardiothoracic academic affairs and professor of surgery, physiology and biophysics.Krukenkamp received a $3.3-million settlement in September after he claimed the university retaliated when he voiced similar worries about the death of another child. A hospital spokeswoman declined this week to discuss the lawsuit, but in the settlement document university officials denied any "wrongful conduct or liability or violation of any federal, state or local statute ordinance or law ... whatsoever."The critique from Krukenkamp comes as the state Department of Health investigates the June 26 death of 7-year-old Tyler Poole of West Islip and the May 13 death of 1-year-old Amee Martin of Mastic.Krukenkamp's current concerns about the use of proper procedures to avoid medical mistakes were echoed in his lawsuit, which he filed against the university and the hospital in February 2004. At that time, Krukencamp was chief of cardiothoracic surgery and director of the hospital's Heart Center.The suit charged that hospital officials decided to "terminate" him because he raised red flags about the care of an infant - identified only as Baby Doe - who died of heart illness in September 2003, after surgery in the pediatric cardiac surgery program. Krukenkamp's lawsuit was not the first time that questions had been raised about the program. In 1999, the state health department began monitoring it after three of 38 babies who had surgery that year died. As recently as February, health department spokesman Robert Kenny said last week, the state cited the program for violations "related to their quality assurance program and ... cases in which complications arose for patients post-surgically.""If the hospital fails to take all appropriate steps to correct the violations, we will consider closure of the program," he added.The hospital defended the program, saying it "has achieved extremely successful outcomes over the past several years." "We received the Department of Health's report addressing areas of concern and have responded. They have accepted our plan to address the issues they raised, and should return in September for an official review," the hospital said in a recent statement. In September, Krukenkamp, 49, who came to Stony Brook from Harvard in 1997, received a $3,375,000 settlement from the university plus promotion to associate dean and the right to stay at the hospital until 2007 and continue his research for another year after that.Nevertheless, he said he is worried about speaking out."I am truly fearful of making any further public statements at this time," said Krukenkamp. "My ability to speak out on such matters of public concern has been clearly chilled by my experiences at the hospital during the last two years." In the lawsuit, Krukenkamp, who was head of the committee that oversees quality assurance for cardiothoracic surgery, said that he raised concerns about the care of Baby Doe. The infant had been operated on by a pediatric heart surgeon from New York-Presbyterian Hospital who has been traveling once a week to Stony Brook since April 2001. Baby Doe developed complications after the first surgery, needed a second surgery and died shortly thereafter, according to the suit.In a letter dated Sept. 19, 2003, to Bruce Schroffel, then chief executive of the hospital, Krukenkamp questioned whether there was adequate surgical backup. He noted that the pediatric heart surgeon was at the university only once a week and there were no other doctors at the hospital with adequate experience in the highly specialized field. He also questioned what he termed in the lawsuit "the inherent conflict of interest" of having the hospital's medical director, Dr. Thomas Biancaniello, also chief of pediatric cardiology, involved in a review of the Baby Doe case.Soon after Krukenkamp raised questions, he said in the suit, he found he was not told about cardiothoracic surgery meetings or meetings were scheduled when he was operating. In November, he was told he was no longer supervising the pediatric congenital heart program, according to the suit. He also learned, he said, that the hospital had gone to an executive search firm to look for candidates to replace him. In addition, he said in the suit, the hospital's review process for Baby Doe "was being shut down."In early January, Krukenkamp met with university president Shirley Strum Kenny to voice his concern, he said in the suit. On Jan. 30, he met with Schroffel and Dr. Norman Edelman, who was then dean of the medical school and vice president of the Health Sciences Center. At the meeting, Krukenkamp said in the lawsuit, he was told that he should submit his resignation as chief of cardiothoracic surgery. Edelman told him that it was in "his best interest not to fight this," according to the suit.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lihosp134815526jul13,0,558868.story

Rise of Retail Clinics Giving Doctors a Chill

2006-07-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

Chicago Tribune - June 12, 2006

Feeling threatened by the proliferation of retail health clinics staffed by nurse practitioners, the nation's largest doctors group is pushing this week for increased scrutiny of the clinics and the nurse practitioners who staff them. Read more...

The Doctor Will See You for Exactly Seven Minutes

2006-07-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

New York Times - March 22, 2006

When politicians speak of America's health care needs, they often miss an important point: the doctor-patient relationship has become frayed. Patients aren't unhappy just because health care costs too much (though they would certainly like it to be more affordable). Read more...

'Health Courts' Proposed to Fix Civil Malpractice System

2006-07-03T06:16:00.000-07:00

The New Standard - June 27, 2006

John McCormack agrees with many that the medical malpractices ystem needs to be reformed. Just don't take away his right to a trial by jury. Read more...

Colo. Group Posts Hospital-Specific Mortality Rates

2006-07-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

A Colorado coalition posted 2004 risk-adjusted mortality data for 11 common conditions and procedures. The hospital-specific data include volume, number of deaths, observed mortality rates, risk-adjusted mortality rates and whether there was a statistically significant difference from the statewide average. Read more...

Charities Tied to Doctors Get Drug Industry Gifts

2006-07-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

New York Times - June 28, 2006

As she presented research results indicating that a new medical device was "an important breakthrough," the doctor's enthusiasm was clear. Less evident were some of the financial links between the researchers and the device's maker. Read more...

Clinical Lab Quality

2006-07-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

Clinical Labs: CMS and Organization Oversight Is Not Sufficient to EnsureLab Quality, by Leslie G. Aronovitz, director, health care, before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, House Committee on Government Reform. Read more...

27,000 Pacemakers & Defibr Could Be

2006-07-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Boston Scientific, which bought Guidant Corp. in April, says 27,000pacemakers and defibrillators made by the former Indianapolis-based companycould be faulty. Read more...

Parents, Doctors and the Disputed Link Between Vaccines and Autism

2006-07-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

It has been nearly 50 years since mothers shouldered the blame for theirchildren's autism. Yet for many parents, echoes of that painful era remain. Read more...

MRSA Rising "Exponentially" Among Athletes, Students

2006-07-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/18/06

A virulent bug that's resistant to the most common antibiotics is racingthrough high school and college athletic arenas and is rising"exponentially" among children, scientists say.

Board Investigates Doc After 10 Of His Pts Die

2006-07-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

June 24, 2006Ark. Probes Doctor After 10 Patients Die By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A state agency is investigating a physician after10 of his patients died from lethal mixtures of drugs or overdoses ofprescription medicines. Read more...

Who Do You Trust? FDA? EPA? Pharma?

2006-07-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

When it comes to minding our personal health, Rich Gimpelson, an OBGYN inSt. Louis advised: Wear your seat belts, don't smoke, drink and eat inmoderation, exercise daily, keep your guns locked when not in use, and mostimportant - inherit good genes. Read more...

Ciproflex Caused Hearing Loss

2006-07-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

(CBS 11 News) DALLAS A Dallas woman checked into a local hospital for aroutine treatment and says a doctor's mistake left her with a permanentdisability. The surprise came when she tried to get help from lawyers, whotold her that because of Texas law there was nothing they could do. Read more...

Drug Errors Pervasive, Study.

2006-07-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- A new study at Johns Hopkins Children's Centershows that errors occurred at all points in the medication process. But the authors added that careful monitoring could correct the problem. Read more...

Big Pharma Research Racket Is Killing People

2006-07-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

June 23, 2006. By Evelyn Pringle

Over the past six years, ten FDA approved drugs have been withdrawn from themarket due to deaths and injuries, leading lawmakers to accuse the FDA ofnot doing its job in protecting the public from unsafe drugs and to call formeasures of improvement. Read more...

Judge Rules on Binding Arbitration Clause

2006-07-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

Shannon P. DuffyThe Legal IntelligencerJune 22, 2006

An arbitration clause is "substantively unconscionable" and thereforeunenforceable under Pennsylvania law if it puts a plaintiff at a "distinctdisadvantage" by restricting discovery depositions to expert witnesses, aPennsylvania federal judge has ruled. Read more...

Enter Ambulance, Or ER & Become An Instant Guinea Pig

2006-07-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

By Robert Davis, Gannett News Service

As Hilary Williams hung from her seatbelt in the overturned wreckage of hertruck - legs broken, colon ruptured and lung bruised - blood oozed from torn arteries and veins. Read more...