Medical Errors News and Research

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Fumbled hospital discharges can lead to medical errors

Poor communication of the outcomes of medical tests whose results are pending at the time of a patient's hospital discharge is common and can lead to serious medical errors in post-hospitalization medical treatment.

7 Aug 2009

Secretary Sebelius to host health insurance webcast

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will host a webcast to discuss how health insurance reform will benefit all Americans on Friday, August 7 at 1:00 PM EDT. The webcast will feature top HHS officials who will discuss how health insurance reform will improve the quality of care for all Americans and take questions.

6 Aug 2009

Parents fear medical errors when children in hospital

Nearly two-thirds of parents reported they felt the need to watch over their child's care to ensure that medical errors are not made during their hospital stay, according to a study led by Beth A. Tarini, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School.

3 Aug 2009

Number of uninsured California kids may double

A new deal to balance California's budget may have serious repercussions for the health of the state's children, while South Carolina grapples with health cuts of its own. Meanwhile, New Jersey may become one of the first states to publically disclose hospital errors.

3 Aug 2009

Upcoming health IT decisions could spell success or failure

"An unprecedented effort to computerize the nation's hospitals and physician offices could be the key to reducing crippling health care costs - or a giveaway to technology vendors whose sales will be subsidized by taxpayers," the Dallas Morning News reports.

15 Jul 2009

Poor working conditions for docs may affect quality of care

"Adverse working conditions for primary care doctors, including time pressures and an unfavorable organizational culture, may lead to stress, burnout, and ultimately to lower quality patient care, a new study found," MedPage Today reports.

8 Jul 2009

Heart medication errors too frequent in children

Infants and young children treated with heart drugs get the wrong dose or end up on the wrong end of medication errors more often than older children, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center to be published July 6 in Pediatrics.

7 Jul 2009

Maryland hospital fined for not reporting errors

Regulators have fined a hospital in Lanham, Maryland, for not reporting errors. The Washington Post reports that "Doctors Community Hospital in Prince George's County has been fined by Maryland health regulators after failing to notify them that a patient had died and that at least seven others suffered serious harm last year as a result of mistakes by the medical staff.

15 Jun 2009

White House, Congress, industry taking on health costs

Health care costs soared nearly 50 percent between 2000 and 2006, adding an urgency for reform that may help Democrats pass a major overhaul before the year-end deadline set by the White House, Bloomberg reports.

2 Jun 2009

Preoperative team briefings improves communication, reduce medical errors

A short, preoperative team briefing prior to cardiac surgery - where each person on the team speaks - improves communication and reduces errors and costs, according to a pilot study conducted at Mayo Clinic.

27 May 2009

Hospital room design can have effect on patient care, outcomes, studies show

Hospital room design can help reduce medical errors, infections and falls, as well as patient stress, according to results emerging from more than 1,500 studies, the New York Times reports.

19 May 2009

Large safety gaps identified between top and bottom performing hospitals

The 2009 HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award™ recipients were identified in a report issued today by the leading independent healthcare ratings organization.

8 Apr 2009

Doors open soon at new $360 million hospital with all-private rooms

When the doors to the new Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital open March 15, patients, their families and the community will find a health care experience unlike any other, offering the latest in medicine, technology and patient safety, integrated with wellness and prevention programs all under one roof.

25 Feb 2009

Radiation therapy equipment vendors to test system integration

The American Society for Radiation Oncology will host a connectathon at its headquarters in Fairfax, Va., this September as part of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise - Radiation Oncology (IHE-RO) initiative to promote seamless connectivity and integration of radiotherapy equipment and patient health information systems.

24 Feb 2009

How electronic medical records can be used to test drug efficacy

For years controversy has surrounded whether electronic medical records (EMR) would lead to increased patient safety, cut medical errors, and reduce healthcare costs.

8 Feb 2009

Health IT associated with better outcomes, lower costs

Patients at Texas hospitals that have automated some aspects of their health information systems appear to have fewer complications, lower death rates and reduced costs, according to a report in the January 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine , one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

27 Jan 2009

Nearly all U.S. hospitals have adverse event reporting systems

More than ninety-four percent of U.S. hospitals have centralized systems for collecting reports of adverse events, but only 21 percent fully distribute and consider adverse event summary reports, according to a study funded by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

10 Dec 2008

Quantros acquires MEDMARX from United States Pharmacopeia

U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) Convention, an official public standards-setting authority for all prescription and over-the-counter medicines sold in the United States, on December 4, 2008 transferred all rights, ownership and management of the overall MEDMARX reporting program to Quantros.

10 Dec 2008

Medicare stops paying for 10 reasonably preventable medical errors

Medicare starting Wednesday will no longer pay hospitals for additional care resulting from "reasonably preventable" errors, the New York Times reports.

5 Oct 2008

Proposed medical loss ratio requirement in California would not address rising health care costs, insurers say

California health insurers say legislation that would require them to spend at least 85% of premium revenue on health benefit expenses would not address the underlying causes of rising health care costs or improve the quality of care, the Wall Street Journal reports.

4 Sep 2008