Medical Malpractice

• FDA Medication Error Reduction Efforts

  Ken Margolin | December 27, 2006 11:15 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Since 2000 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has renewed efforts to prevent medication errors and other patient-related safety problems. The HHS formed the Patient Safety Task Force, which is a conglomeration of other agencies united to improve health-care safety, including the FDA and CDC. In 2002, the FDA devoted an entire division to assessing and correcting medication...

• Suits over hernia mesh patch on the rise

  Staff Writer | December 27, 2006 9:33 AM | 0 CommentsColorado Springs, CO

  Earlier this month a law firm out of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, announced that they are filing suit on behalf of their client against Davol, Inc., the manufacturer of Composix Kugel Mesh Patch, which as been used in a number of hernia repair surgeries. The defective medical device has been known to cause serious complications in patients who have undergone hernia surgery in which is was...

• New Pharmaceutical Worries

  Ken Margolin | December 26, 2006 7:15 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A British study reported last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reported a significantly higher risk of hip fractures in patients over 50 years of age, taking popular heartburn drugs, such as Nexium, Prevacid, or Prilosec, for more than a year. The drugs, as any television watcher or magazine reader, knows, have been heavily advertised. The drugs that showed the highest...

• Kidney Disease Associated With Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agent

  Jamie Sheller | December 26, 2006 10:27 AM | 0 CommentsPhiladelphia, PA

  Recently, the FDA updated an earlier public health advisory concerning gadolinium-based contrast agents used with MRI and MR angiography procedures. There have been a number of reports of a new disease called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis or nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy (NSF/NSD) occuring in patients with moderate to end-stage kidney disease. Some patients developed NSF/NSD after only one...

• Recall of Some Boston Scientific Guide Catheters

  Jamie Sheller | December 22, 2006 4:30 PM | 0 CommentsPhiladelphia, PA

  The FDA has recalled 12 lots of Boston Scientific's Mach 1 Guide Catheters. These devices are tubes that are thread through the body and used to help treat coronary artery disease. Excess strands of resin may be inside of some of the catheters. In the event that excess resin is present and detaches while the catheter is being used in treatment, embolization may occur. Embolization in a blood...

• Breast Cancer Mis-Diagnosis and Late Diagnosis

  Robert Blanchard | December 22, 2006 12:22 PM | 1 CommentPensacola, FL

  An international panel updated their standards on the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, as reported in the October 2006 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS). According to the American Cancer Society, invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in 211,240 women and will cause more than 40,000 deaths in 2005. The updated statement reflects the conclusions of a panel...

• This Prescription Error Is A Disaster

  Bob Carroll | December 22, 2006 8:02 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  Misfilled prescriptions or prescription errors continue to occur at an alarming rate in Florida. And, sadly, they sometimes produce a devastating injury or death. The following news report shows the problem is not limited to our state. Pharmacy error nets $8 million jury awardLANCASTER, S.C. - A jury has awarded a Lancaster woman nearly $8 million after she lost the use of her only kidney...

• What the Hospitals Might Not Be Telling You

  Ben Glass | December 22, 2006 5:21 AM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  The British Medical Journal has an interesting article of a study comparing actual medical records with what hospitals were reporting to regulators about adverse incidents.To test the performance of seflf reporting systems, researchers compared data from the routine reporting system with a review of case notes for the same patients in a large NHS hospital in England.Heres what they found:The...

• COPIC to Return $10M to Physicians

  Christina Cole | December 22, 2006 3:26 AM | 0 CommentsChattanooga, TN

  On Wednesday, the state's largest medical malpractice insurer said it will return $10 million to the Colorado doctors that it covers. COPIC Insurance Co. covers over than 80% of privately insured Colorado Doctors. The distribution follows a September announcement that there will not be an overall rate increase for doctors during 2007. "One of the promises we make to our insured physicians is...

• Doctor Facing Over 100 Malpractice Suits Testifies

  Christina Cole | December 21, 2006 3:40 PM | 0 CommentsNew Hampshire, NH

  Former Putnam General Hospital doctor at the center of over 100 medical malpractice lawsuits testified Friday that he doesn't have a fixed address and has not worked since early November and lost his tax records when his accountant's office was burnt down. Christopher Wallace Martin, previously known as John A. King changed his name in April and his former name was used during Friday's hour long...