Category Archives: Headline of the Day

Report: Rules are changing, but most residents still won't get enough sleep

July 15, 2011

Report: Rules are changing, but most residents still won’t get enough sleep.

As more surgery moves to outpatient facilities…..

July 14, 2011

Spine experts repudiate medtronic studies

June 29, 2011

“It harms patients to have biased and corrupted research published,” five doctors wrote in a joint editorial that accompanied the reports. “It harms patients to have unaccountable special interests permeate medical research.”

West Hartford Doc Caught In Drug Probe Gets Reprimand, Oversight | CT Health I-Team

June 17, 2011

West Hartford Doc Caught In Drug Probe Gets Reprimand, Oversight | CT Health I-Team. He is doing something illegal and he gets a reprimand?  Gee, he must be a doctor.

Conflicts of Interest skewer cancer prevention

June 16, 2011

In the book, “National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society: Criminal Indifference to Cancer Prevention and Conflicts of Interest,” Epstein argues that the NCI and ACS have spent tens of billions of taxpayer and charity dollars focusing on treatment to the exclusion of prevention, which has allowed cancer rates to skyrocket, with the disease now affecting nearly one in two men and more than one in three women. Furthermore, the author claims that not only do numerous conflicts of interest exist within the NCI and ACS, but the NCI and ACS are also withholding a mass of information on avoidable causes of cancer.

The DPH has the power…will they use it?

June 14, 2011

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/health/entry/lawmakers_tighten_doctor_discipline/ The new legislation enables the DPH to pull the license of a doctor who lost his license in another state.  Recently, Dr. Berken, on our sex offender registry, got

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Analysis of flawed medical examining board

June 6, 2011

For years, outside critics have lashed out at the board, saying it is too lenient with doctors, and has allowed some physicians to keep their licenses after having committed egregious violations.

Critics have been equally harsh toward the Department of Public Health’s investigatory and legal staff, which looks into claims against doctors, hands often-truncated findings to the board and recommends

resolutions.

Patient advocates believe the board and DPH are failing to protect the public against the few bad apples who abuse their medical privileges.

Board members themselves — past and present — told Greenwich Time they believe the system is flawed.

average means you can be at risk

March 28, 2011

Hartford Business.com March 28, 2011   CT hospitals mostly ‘average’ on patient safety 03/15/11 Hospitals in the Hartford/New Haven region ranked 38th out of 68 metropolitan areas for the prevalence

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amednews: Obstetrics safety initiatives cut medical liability costs by 90% :: March 18, 2011 … American Medical News

March 21, 2011

Why can’t more hospitals and practices follow these common sense approaches to improving care.  Far too often, doctors keep doing the same thing and just hoping for better results.  amednews:

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Infections – outrageous that so little is done

March 14, 2011

The HealthGrades study also found that:

Four patient safety indicators (death among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications, pressure ulcer, post-operative respiratory failure, and post-operative sepsis) accounted for 68.51% of all patient safety events during the three years analyzed.
The 13 patient safety events studied were associated with $7.3 billion of excess cost, which equates to an additional $181.17 per Medicare patient hospitalization.
Preventable medical errors are so pervasive and costly that the federal government has proposed linking incentive-based hospital compensation to four of the AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators, starting in 2014. In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are currently developing a 10-year, $70 billion plan aimed at reducing hospital-acquired infections.