Here is a central irony concerning the electronic health record (EHR) systems that are rapidly becoming the norm in hospitals across the country, including in New Jersey, as expressed by a pediatrician."It is actually much harder to take care of sick patients in the...
An obvious concern: surgical objects left inside patients’ bodies
Calling it "a well-known problem, but one that can be prevented," an official with the Joint Commission -- a nonprofit entity that accredits more than 20,000 health care organizations across the country -- recently put the spotlight on so-called "unintended retention...
FDA, others increasingly focused on robotic surgery claims
We last reported on robotic surgery in the United States in a September 5, 2013, blog post. We noted therein a related comment from Martin A. Makary, a noted doctor and medical commentator. In discussing the scope and dimensions of surgical error in connection with...
In the wake of national meningitis outbreak: a rising human toll
By way of an update, which is perhaps timely given a batch of relevant numbers just reported in the Boston Globe, we seek to keep our New Jersey and other readers abreast of material developments in the nation's unprecedented meningitis outbreak that occurred in...
Opinion: A call for a freeze on electronic health record systems
The recent reference in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine to the "Tower of Babel" concerning electronic health records systems (EHRs) is, as most readers might quickly infer, far from being a compliment.The transition from patients' handwritten medical...
