medication errors news from FierceHealthcare
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Boston hospitals cut medication errors
By integrating their computer systems and improving their processes, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital of Boston were able to cut down on medication errors during the... Read more...
Study: Patient-controlled pain meds cause harm more often
A new study has concluded that when patients receive intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA)--which allows them to control their own pain medication--they face risks not typical of other... Read more...
Study: Single rooms should become standard for new hospitals
Have you noticed, lately, that when hospitals and health systems announce a new facility, it usually comes with private rooms? That's not a coincidence. Increasingly, hospital planners are reaching a... Read more...
CA hospitals fined for dangerous deficiencies
The California Public Health Department has announced that it has fined 18 hospitals $25,000 per violation for deficiencies in their performance, citing them for administrative problems that could... Read more...
Study: Accidental drug overdose rates hit new high
A new study suggests that deaths from medical mistakes at home have gone up substantially over the last two decades, driven largely by growing home use of prescription painkillers and other drugs... Read more...
Babies given heparin overdoses at TX hospital
Yet another incident of heparin overdose to babies has occurred, pointing up the difficulty in controlling this problem despite massive national attention to the issue. Up to 17 babies in a Texas... Read more...
CA hospitals disclose more than 1000 medical harm cases
California hospitals have made their first official disclosures of never events occurring in their facilities, a step required under a state law enacted in 2006. The disclosures, which cover the... Read more...
MA Blue plan, state ban payment for medical errors
In another major blow for this approach, the state of Massachusetts' Medicaid program and the largest health insurer there each announced that they won't pay for a list of "never events." This week,... Read more...
NY Medicaid will stop paying for 'never events'
New York's Medicaid program has decided to stop reimbursing for avoidable hospital complications and medical errors it considers to be "never events." Starting in October, it won't pay for care... Read more...
Heparin scare leads to new dosing issue
While efforts to make dosing safer in the wake of recent heparin-related deaths make sense, such efforts have created a fresh set of safety concerns for providers who use it, observers say. For one... Read more...
