mistakes news from FierceHealthcare

Though they won't implement this change immediately, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans have decided that they won't pay for serious errors and "never events" like wrong surgical procedures and Read more...

Hospitals are still trying to get their head around new Medicare rules that will ban Read more...

Wrong-site surgeries happen or almost happen every other day in Pennsylvania healthcare organizations, says a new study. And, researchers suggest, those findings mirror what's taking place in other states.

Officials of the Pennsylvania Safety Authority, which conducted the survey, said in a 30-month time period stretching from June 2004 to December 2006, they received 427 near misses or reports of wrong-site surgeries. Of those, 253 were near misses. Of the remaining surgeries, …

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More evidence from the "tired interns make mistakes" front. A new study presented at a professional conference suggests that extended shifts pose a threat to patient safety, not to mention the health of the interns themselves. Researchers collected more than 17,000 monthly reports from a group of more than 2,700 interns. Study author Laura Barger of Brigham and Women's Hospital then conducted a data analysis to see whether 24-hour-plus shifts were associated with reported medical errors …

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It's a shame that such things are necessary, but there's no getting around it--malpractice liability counts when doctors speak with the families of deceased patients. Hoping to make the task just a bit easier, Hawaii has passed a bill allowing doctors to express sympathy and offer condolences without fearing that their gesture can be used against them in court. On the other hand, the new law's language specifically notes that a doctor's apology or admission of fault can indeed by used …

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Lawmakers in nine states are considering measures which would allow physicians to apologize for mistakes without fearing that their apology would be used against them in a malpractice suit. According to American Medical Association research, at least 27 other states have already passed such laws in recent times. The laws are designed to encourage doctors to explain what happened when something goes wrong, inform patients of their options and apologize. Right now, many doctors are warned …

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> Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has announced that it will begun funding employee wellness programs for 20 of the state's mid-sized employers. Article

> DC-area blood donations have fallen to a "crisis" level, experts say. Article

> A new study suggests CDHPs that couple the new structure …

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In the high-intensity atmosphere of the ER, nurses and physicians must make quick decisions often without patient's medical history. This can lead to mistakes, such as misdosing and miscalculation of the amount of drug needed. In Pasadena, however, several hospitals have brought pharmacists into the ER to cut down on these mistakes. Having a pharmacist on board can help hospitals cut down on errors and streamline the way drugs are distributed. "There is a lot of evidence in the literature …

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Doctors, maybe it's worth spending a few extra moments telling patients how they should take their medicines. According to a study which will be published next week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, patients with inadequate reading skills often make mistakes with their drugs because they have trouble reading prescription labels. At greatest risk are people with below sixth-grade literacy levels and people with multiple prescriptions to manage, researchers concluded. To …

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Not sure you're running your practice efficiently? Well, instead of hiring a big-ticket consultant, perhaps you'll want to give the Medical Group Management Association's new medical practice management tool a spin. The MGMA's Web-based simulator lets physicians try out management scenarios without paying a heavy price for mistakes. The simulator uses historical data collected by MGMA to fuel the simulation results. Article