It is certainly interesting to read one prominent doctor and medical commentator note that "one of the most difficult moments in one's career" relates not to unraveling a complex illness or informing a patient of tragic news, but, rather, to a discussion with another...
Breslin & Breslin, P.A.
Preventable medical mistakes: an enduring research focus
It is certainly one of the medical industry's central frustrations that preventable medical errors recur in hospitals nationally, including in New Jersey.Over and over and over again.That they do is especially disconcerting because the error rate for things like...
Doctors cite too-rapid integration of electronic health records
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...
Estimates of fatal medical mistakes: Is upward revision required?
The seminal and oft-cited estimate offered more than 20 years ago by the national Institute of Medicine concerning the number of people who die annually in American hospitals owing to medical mistakes was for some time viewed as unrealistic.The IOM report entitled "To...
Doctors’ failure to diagnose breast cancer may cost woman’s life
When you go to a doctor about a medical concern, you expect to be told the truth, not given a comforting half-truth. In the case of a woman now facing the probability of premature death, however, that was apparently the mistake by her radiologist and gynecologist.When...
House committee investigates jump in VA medical malpractice cases
Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs paid out $91.7 million in medical malpractice claims -- the most in at least 12 years, according to the Government Accountability Office. That represented more than 1,500 malpractice claims against VA providers, which...