Medical Malpractice

• Caps On Medical Malpractice Damages Produce Windfall Insurance Profits

  Bob Carroll | December 11, 2006 10:45 PM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  When the Florida Legislature was being pressured to place a cap on the damages in medical malpractice cases there were those who said doing so would only result in windfall profit for the medical malpractice insurance industry. They were right. Three years after the Legislature capped medical malpractice payouts, insurance company payouts have decreased dramatically, but not their...

• Hospitals May Soon Have Financial Incentives To Reduce Medication Errors

  Bob Carroll | December 11, 2006 5:49 PM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  Maybe, just maybe, hospital medication errors will be reduced soon. Congress has tied Medicare reimbursements to a hospital's adoption of new quality standards related to medications. Congress Passes Legislation to Prevent Medication Errors U.S. Senators Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar today announced that the Senate passed legislation late last night that includes steps to prevent hospital...

• Wrongful Death Beneficiaries Don't Waive Their Right To Privacy

  Ben Glass | December 10, 2006 12:16 PM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  We represent the family of a mother whose death was allegedly caused by the medical malpractice of one of the major HMO-type healthcare providers in Northern Virginia, Washington and Maryland. That defendant sought to obtain by subpoena a lifetime of medical, scholastic and mental health records for the decedent's 11 year-old son and 25 years of medical and mental health records for the...

• New FDA Drug Information Rules

  Ken Margolin | December 08, 2006 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Earlier this year, the federal Food and Drug Administration passed new rules designed to make it easier for doctors to get essential information from the inserts inside packages of prescription drugs. The rules change reflected an understanding that the growing complexity of information presented in package inserts, was becoming confusing even to physicians. Serious medication errors were a...

• Medication Error Reduction Efforts Continue

  Ken Margolin | December 08, 2006 1:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The ground breaking book, Medication Errors, edited by Michael R. Cohen, was published in 1999. In November of this year, Medication Errors 2nd Edition, was released. A review the book reveals the nature of some of the still-problematic areas of medication errors, as well as the ongoing efforts of the medical profession to reduce them.Pediatric medication errors continue to be a serious problem....

• Pediatric Residents Working Fewer Hours

  Bob Carroll | December 05, 2006 5:15 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  It appears that pediatric residents are the same as the rest of us. Working fewer hours reduces fatigue and patient care errors. Pediatric Residency Duty Hours Before and After Limitations"Since the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education duty hour limits went into effect, pediatric residents report working fewer hours and making fewer patient care errors because of fatigue....

• Eye Exams For Infants And Children Are Critical

  Bob Carroll | December 05, 2006 3:58 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  Infants and children should have more eye examinations. That is the word from the American Optometric Association. Its recommendations and my comments are below. Health Tip: Your Child Needs Regular Eye ExamsHealthDay News -- Regular eye checkups are important, especially for children, the American Optometric Association says.The newborn checkup at the hospital isn't enough, the group warns....

• Old Surgeons Not a Problem

  Robert Blanchard | December 04, 2006 10:05 AM | 1 CommentPensacola, FL

  When you need complex cardiovascular or cancer surgery, you have to choose a surgeon and many patients may select an older physician, assuming his experience may be needed. New research says they are right - experience helps. A study designed to address this issue used approximately 461,000 Medicare records to assess the association between age of the listed operator and surgical mortality. For...

• Dogs, Infants And Wheezing

  Bob Carroll | December 04, 2006 6:41 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  I am a happy man today. My two grandchildren, apparently, can hope to avoid wheezing in their lives because their parents were smart enough to raise them with fur-shedding brothers. Now, what will help me get the fur out of my lungs?Infants Wheeze Less In Homes With Multiple DogsLiving in a home with multiple dogs may help reduce an infant's risk for developing wheezing in the first year of...

• Chronic Whiplash Symptoms Being Studied With Special Vest

  Bob Carroll | December 03, 2006 6:50 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  If you are headed for Australia, happen to have continuing physical problems from a whiplash injury and can spare a day, the University of Queensland needs you. Volunteers Required For Whiplash Injury ResearchUQ's Physiotherapy Division is asking people to don a special vest to improve understanding of the impact of whiplash on the daily life of people with chronic symptoms. Dr Michele...