By Patrick Corcoran on September 3, 2010
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday that it is considering a petition to restrict the long hours worked by medical residents.
“We are very concerned about medical residents working extremely long hours, and we know of evidence linking sleep deprivation with an increased risk of needle sticks, puncture wounds, lacerations, medical errors and motor vehicle accidents,” ... Read more »
Posted in Medical Errors, News & Notes, Workplace Safety
By Elise Craig on August 23, 2010
Hospitals often rely on plastic tubes to provide patients medicine, nutrition or oxygen. But because much of the tubing looks the same and is interchangeable, mix-ups commonly occur that, researchers say, have led to hundreds of serious injuries or deaths, The New York Times reports.
“This is a deadly design failure in health care,” said Debora ... Read more »
Posted in Medical Errors, News & Notes
By Lea Yu on August 4, 2010
In June, computers at a Midwestern hospital chain suddenly began swapping medical records, causing doctors to put the wrong information into patients’ files. Less than two weeks later, the hospital company discovered that its nurses were not receiving digital pharmacy orders, prompting a four-hour shutdown of the electronic database serving 10 hospitals.
The Michigan-based chain, Trinity ... Read more »
Posted in Medical Errors, News & Notes, Product Hazards and Recalls
By Elise Craig on August 2, 2010
Within the last few years, some patients across the country who underwent sophisticated brain scans to determine if they had suffered strokes began to experience odd symptoms, including a stripe of baldness running around the backs of their heads, memory loss and confusion.
Eventually, doctors discovered that the problem stemmed from accidental radiation overdoses from the ... Read more »
Posted in Medical Errors, News & Notes
By Elise Craig on July 8, 2010
Patients who are admitted to the intensive care unit on weekends are more likely to die in the hospital than patients admitted during the week, according to an analysis of 10 international studies.
Researchers analyzed data from studies in North America, Europe and Asia and compared the time of admission to the ICU with the rate of ... Read more »
Posted in Medical Errors, News & Notes
By Elise Craig on June 30, 2010
A VA hospital in St. Louis may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to diseases including HIV and hepatitis.
The John Cochran VA Medical Center sent letters to 1,812 patients explaining that they were at risk for contracting hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV because dental technicians had improperly cleaned their instruments. The lapse in protocol ... Read more »
Posted in Medical Errors, News & Notes
