Medical Malpractice

• Can Computers Reduce Prescription Errors?

  Bob Carroll | October 09, 2005 6:37 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Health Care Systems Reducing Prescription Errors. The article is promising. But there is a downside to the use of technology in prescriptions. It inroduces some risk of other errors in the processing of prescriptions. As long as humans are part of the prescribing and prescription-filling process there will be errors that go undetected. The headline sounds positive: Health Care Systems...

• Patient Safety, Medical Errors - The North & South Poles In The World Of Medicine

  Bob Carroll | October 08, 2005 1:40 PM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Two opposite forces often determine whether a bad result occurs during medical care. These forces (or poles) are the concepts of patient safety and medical errors. As many as 44,000 to 98,000 persons die in US hospitals each year as a result of medical errors.Two opposite forces often determine whether a bad result occurs during medical care. These forces (or poles) are the concepts of...

• Scary Fact - Over 100,000 Deaths Caused By Malpractice Each Year

  Bob Carroll | October 06, 2005 6:10 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Americans are more frightened of dying at the hands of their doctor than they are of a plane crash. MalpracticResources.com makes this shocking statement based upon a recent report of a survey of Americans. These people must have heard that medical errors cause more deaths in the United States every year than car accidents, AIDS, or breast cancer.Americans are more frightened of dying at the...

• You May Need To Experience A Medication Error To Be On Guard At Your Pharmacy

  Bob Carroll | October 05, 2005 5:48 PM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Patients who have experienced medication errors take more precautions when dealing with pharmacies. They have lower perceptions of pharmacy safety, according to a study reported in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (July, 2005). The majority did not worry about pharmacy safety and generally believed that the drug dispensing process at their pharmacy was safe.Patients who have...

• Coumadin And Cardura - Prescription Error Causes Death

  Bob Carroll | October 05, 2005 10:25 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Two prescription drugs, both beginning with the same letter, Coumadin and Cardura, were confused by a pharmacy in Florida. As a result of the prescription error a tragic death occurred. Several breaches of internal pharmacy policies must have been tolerated or encouraged by management. Two prescription drugs, both beginning with the letter "C", Coumadin and Cardura, were confused by a pharmacy...

• National Medical Error Disclosure Program Proposed

  Bob Carroll | October 01, 2005 5:07 PM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Doctors may soon have an incentive to fess up when they do the wrong thing. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have introduced a bill to provide liability protections for physicians who disclose medical errors and offer to enter compensation negotiations with injured patients. Medical News Today reports the bill would establish the National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation...

• Toprol - XL Confused With Topamax In Pharmacies And Doctor Offices

  Bob Carroll | September 29, 2005 12:18 PM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  AstraZeneca is reporting TOPROL-XL medication errors according to NewsInferno.com. TOPROL-XL, a beta blocker taken for the treatment of conditions such as hypertension and angina pectoris, is being confused in pharmacies and doctor offices with Topamax, indicated for the treatment of epilepsy and migraine prophylaxis. AstraZeneca is reporting TOPROL-XL medication errors according to...

• A Schedule of Damages for Malpractice Cases?

  Bob Carroll | September 27, 2005 4:40 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Michigan lawyer, Aaron Larson, blogging on The Stopped Clock, shoots down a proposal to create a schedult of damages for malpractice cases.To his thoughts I would add my own: Why not focus on stopping the malpractice instead of reducing the compensation to its victims. If half as much effort were to be expended in improving the quality of patient care as is involved in creating "certainty and...

• Spinal Anesthesia Results In Paraplegia

  Bob Carroll | September 25, 2005 4:44 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  "Does the evidence support the use of spinal and epidural anesthesia for surgery?"This is the question asked in the excellent medical journal article just published in the Journal of Clinical Anesthesia atVolume 17 • Number 5 • August 2005.Spinal anesthesia can result in bleeding into the epidural space which, if not diagnosed and treated within a very short window of time, may lead...

• Doctor Must Ask Right Questions Even If The Patient Speaks Spanish

  Bob Carroll | September 24, 2005 11:08 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  A breakdown in communications between an obstetrician and a Spanish-speaking pregnant mother may have resulted in injuries to a newborn child in the Florida case of TORRES v. SULLIVAN, 2D03-5227 (Fla.App. 2 Dist. 2005).The standard of care provided to an expectant mother regarding delivery should not be lowered because she does not speak English. Nor should the expectant mother be expected to...