From the monthly archives:

April 2005

A call to New Hampshire physicians

April 30, 2005

The New Hampshire Medical Society is making a plea to physicians to support the bill for pre-trial panels in medical malpractice cases (SB 214). I will do my part by spreading the word through this blog. This has been exhaustively discussed previously.
From a letter I received today: “Many legislators have only received one call [...]

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April 30, 2005

Turning the tables: Doctors are now suing the insurance companies
“Local doctors claim greed has overtaken the health industry, and that insurance companies are making decisions of life and death instead of physicians. Now thousands of doctors are suing insurance providers.”
The insurance company’s ironic response: “We believe the class-action lawsuits … are baseless and frivolous.”

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April 30, 2005

A man who was declared dead and had life support withdrawn was actually alive
“The doctor on duty had removed the life support systems and was making arrangements for sending the patient for postmortem when the family doctor of the patient, who happened to be there, noticed that the pulse was still beating.”

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April 30, 2005

9 and 10-year old children are receiving Epivir and AZT after being exposed to HIV“Some students already have begun taking a combination of medicines – 100 milligrams of Retrovir (or AZT, an HIV treatment) and 150 milligrams of Epivir (an HIV and hepatitis treatment), in addition to a stomach protector – to prevent the onset [...]

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April 30, 2005

A pregnant 13-year-old girl in Florida has been told she cannot have an abortion because she lacks the maturity to make such a decision
“Florida’s department of children and families intervened and took the matter to court, arguing the teenager, who is under the care of the state, is too young and immature to make an [...]

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April 30, 2005

Money talks: The UK is paying physicians to have better access
Using cash as an incentive to promote open-access scheduling. Crude, but that’s one way to reduce wait times.

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April 29, 2005

“It’s our malpractice system and its reliance on fault that are responsible for increasing damage awards and costly defensive medicine on the part of physicians.”“The American malpractice system relies on fault. It requires the injured victim and their attorney to allege fault and to accuse the medical provider of substandard medicine. The system requires [...]

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April 29, 2005

The patients lose again: In the crusade against pain physicians, those in real pain are left hanging
“Since the doctor’s arrest, KETV NewsWatch 7 has heard from several of his patients, telling stories similar to Hook’s. Hook is a nurse, and describes Rosario as a good physician. She said Rosario did not push pills, and instead, [...]

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April 29, 2005

A 2-year old died in his father’s arms while waiting to be seen in the emergency room
“The Toronto Sun reported yesterday that the child was brought to the hospital by his parents around 5:30 Monday morning. He had reportedly vomited and had diarrhea the day before, and when his condition did not improve his parents [...]

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April 29, 2005

Even for those with health insurance, medical costs are bankrupting families
“Families are paying more and more for health insurance that covers them less and less.”

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April 28, 2005

An Ohio judge has formally sanctioned an attorney who brought a frivolous suit against a physician
“The plaintiff’s attorney pressed her case even after her own expert witness could offer no evidence that the doctor hadn’t met the prevailing standard of care. The judge ordered her to pay the physician $6,000 plus interest, to cover [...]

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April 28, 2005

An 86 year-old woman goes on a hunger strike protesting staffing shortages at her nursing home“We need help desperately. Two people looking after 17 is not enough.” (via Cuppa News)

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April 28, 2005

Shifting care from physicians to nurse practitioners do not result in any cost savings
“Because nurses spent more time with each patient, however, they saw fewer patients per hour. In four of five studies on nurse-led urgent care, lower salary costs were offset by this so-called ‘lower productivity’ and increased use of resources.”
Mid-level providers, such as [...]

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April 28, 2005

More than two-thirds of U.S. adults think that the law should allow medical euthanasia for dying patients in severe distress who ask to have their lives ended

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April 28, 2005

According to a Gallup poll, the most frequently recommended occupation is medicine

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April 28, 2005

A surgeon is sued when a patient developed arterial blood clots after ankle surgeryThe case ended in a mistrial. An arterial blood clot is uncommon: “The defense, however, argued that Horrell’s particular complication after her surgery was utterly unheard of and that Fugate could not have been reasonably expected to discern it.”
Perhaps the patient [...]

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