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...
Friday, May 25, 2007
Ritter signs a dozen bills, including one making doctor info available to public
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...
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...
Monday, April 23, 2007
Medical Mistakes Bill Advances At Capitol
(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.
misdiagnosed with a brain cyst.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Governor Ritter signs Senate Bill 66
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
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...
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...
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Mother campaigns for malpractice disclosure
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...
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...
Monday, February 05, 2007
What's the trouble? How doctors think.
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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...
Friday, January 05, 2007
The check's not in the mail
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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...
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Hospitals, MDs Addressing Long Wait Time
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...
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
by Kirstin Cole
(CBS) NEW YORK - Kathy Lang is doctor shopping, turning to the Internet to find a physician. Read more...
(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
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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...
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