- Defective products
- Trucking and motor
vehicle collisions - Insurance claims and
disputes - Nursing home neglect
- Medical negligence,
drugs, and medical
products - Aircraft, railroad, and
boating accidents - Construction and
industrial accidents - Fire, toxic, and
chemical injuries - Public interest and
environmental work
Your Case
Consumer Alerts: Medical and Pharmaceutical
Drug Recalls and Advisories
Dennis Quaid Tours Dallas Hospital
July 22, 2008
"Actor Dennis Quaid, whose twins were given an overdose of a blood thinner as newborns at a California hospital, toured a Dallas hospital on Tuesday to learn about a system to prevent such errors."
Bad-Behavior Cure Sought by Watchdog
July 10, 2008
"A nurse should be able to point out a missing sponge to the chief surgeon without fear of reprisal or a tongue lashing, and a patient's page of a doctor should be answered rather than ignored. Such examples of health-care workers behaving badly soon will have serious repercussions from a leading watchdog."
Spohn Investigating Infant Death
July 8, 2008
"One newborn is dead after a Christus Spohn Hospital South pharmacy error that led to as many as 17 babies getting as much as 100 times the recommended dosage of the blood thinner heparin."
Los Angeles County Failed to Track Problem King-Harbor Workers
July 9, 2008
"Under withering criticism, Los Angeles County health officials acknowledged Tuesday that they had not used a key database intended to track and weed out problem employees from Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital for nearly a year."
Blue Cross Won't Cover Costs Tied to Hospital Errors
July 7, 2008
"Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island has issued a 'statement of principle' saying it will not pay health care providers - specifically, hospitals - for costs associated with 28 'serious reportable events' such as wrong-site surgery, severe bedsores, or patient death or disability resulting from a fall or from the use of contaminated drugs or devices."
Releasing Data on Hospital Errors
July 2, 2008
"Consumers get more information about the fat calories in their potato chips than about the hospitals to which they entrust their lives. Before you buy a car, you probably check out its frequency-of-repair statistics. Wouldn't it be nice to know the frequency with which your hospital's working parts fail, resulting in serious injury? "
"Questions Are the Answer" to Helping Patients Understand Their Health
June 26, 2008
"The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of healthcare for all Americans. So why is AHRQ producing "Questions Are the Answer" — an upbeat, musical consumer campaign that encourages patients to ask questions?"
Research Finds More Electronic Interference in Hospitals
June 24, 2008
"Hospital hallways are covered with warnings to silence mobile phones, which can interfere with medical equipment. It appears other devices commonly used in hospitals might have the same effect on critical-care medical equipment, new research suggests."
Research Finds More Electronic Interference in Hospitals
June 24, 2008
"Hospital hallways are covered with warnings to silence mobile phones, which can interfere with medical equipment. It appears other devices commonly used in hospitals might have the same effect on critical-care medical equipment, new research suggests."
Medical Litter: Device Debris Poses Serious Risk
June 16, 2008
"A dozen years after Pamela Jones had surgery on her right knee, the White Plains, Md., woman learned why the pain continued long after the wound had healed: A doctor left a 2-inch scalpel blade inside her leg."
Children's Hospitals Make Too Many Mistakes, Report Says
June 2, 2008
"Hospitalized children suffer too many infections and other preventable complications that extend hospital stays and cost millions, according to a study released today.
Researchers found that some complications occurred in up to 4 percent of children treated at 38 children's hospitals nationwide, including St. Louis Children's Hospital. Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center and St. John's Mercy Children's Hospital were not included in the study. "
Insurer Must Pay for Boy's Treatment
June 1, 2008
"Parker Summers is a healthy, happy 9-year-old kid who loves science class and has developed an interest in mythology. He likes to swim and is driving his parents crazy with pleas for karate lessons.
Six years ago last month, the Appleton boy was released from the hospital after a golf ball-size tumor was removed from his brain. He faced a long stint of high-dose chemotherapy and stem-cell rescue. His parents were shocked to find out that the treatment was not covered by their health insurance plan. "
More Health Care May Not Always Be Better
May 30, 2008
"Too much medical care could be harmful to your health.
That's what researchers concluded after examining the nations' hospitals and the care patients receive. Some hospitals and some areas of the country give patients more aggressive care -- meaning more tests, longer hospital stays and more procedures -- than others. And the extra treatment doesn't always translate to longer or better lives. "
Hospital Acquired Infections, What You Need To Know
May 19, 2008
"It has become fairly common these days to experience first hand the devastating news that you or a loved one has been transferred to the intensive care unit because, shortly after a successful surgery, they have acquired an infection within the hospital setting. Patients, while being treated for another issue, are contracting often fatal infections in the hospital, in fact, one in seven patients acquire a healthcare associated infection each day. Approximately tens of thousands of deaths each year due to 'nosocomial' infections are preventable. "
Dennis Quaid Talks Medical Errors with Congress
May 14, 2008
"With his newborn twins steadily recovering from a medical error that nearly cost them their lives, actor Dennis Quaid appeared on Capitol Hill today and assured lawmakers that his fight isn't over.
Quaid was among several people who told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today that a drug isn't necessarily safe just because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves it."
Barcoded Medication Administration: A Last Line of Defense
May 14, 2008
"Preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) generate an estimated $2 billion in direct hospital costs each year and are a substantial source of morbidity and mortality.1 The 2 processes from which preventable ADEs most commonly arise are medication prescribing and administration. A physician order for penicillin for a patient with a known penicillin allergy is an example of the former, whereas the latter is illustrated by the erroneous administration of 100 units of insulin when 10 were ordered."
Hospital Quality Rewards May Backfire for the Poor, Study Finds
May 13, 2008
"Pay-for-performance bonuses for U.S. hospitals may backfire, penalizing institutions that serve the poor and lack money to improve quality ratings, a study found."
"At four hundred and ten pounds Scot Segars is desperately trying to lose weight. In fact over the last 6 months, he did lose one hundred pounds, but doctors say its not enough. They agree if he doesn't do something soon his weight could kill him."
Heparin Contamination May Have Been Deliberate, F.D.A. Says
April 30, 2008
"Federal drug regulators believe that a contaminant detected in a crucial blood thinner that has caused 81 deaths was added deliberately, something the Food and Drug Administration has only hinted at previously. 'F.D.A.'s working hypothesis is that this was intentional contamination, but this is not yet proven,' Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Food and Drug Administration's drug center, told the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in written testimony given Tuesday. A third of the material in some batches of the thinner heparin were contaminants, 'and it does strain one's credulity to suggest that might have been done accidentally,' Dr. Woodcock said."
Are Your Medical Records at Risk?
April 29, 2008
"When it comes to protecting the privacy of patients' computerized information, the main threat the health-care industry faces isn't from hackers, but from itself.
In a spate of recent security lapses at hospitals, health insurers and the federal government, private information on hundreds of thousands of patients, ranging from Social Security numbers to fertility-treatment and cancer records, has been compromised. The incidents have included the theft of an unencrypted laptop from an employee of the National Institutes of Health and the inadvertent posting of personal data unsecured on the Web from insurers WellCare Health Plans Inc. and WellPoint Inc. At the UCLA Hospital System, several employees were fired or disciplined recently for sneaking peeks at Britney Spears' computerized medical files."
Don't Judge a Drug Trial Study by Its Cover
April 26, 2008
"Peer-reviewed journals play a pivotal role in modern medicine.
When a journal publishes a study from a drug trial, it conveys the impression that the research is sound. In fact, drug companies will buy study reprints, at great cost, and distribute them to doctors who are often too busy to sort through the medical literature on their own."
Physicians Fixate On Diagnosis, Neglect Treatment
April 20, 2008
"When doctors are freed from commercial pressure, how well do they perform?
We've grown accustomed to scapegoating pharmaceutical companies for health care ills. The implication is that if left alone by money-grubbing drug companies and health insurers, physicians make the right decisions on behalf of their patients.
Not so fast. It turns out that improving the quality of health care has only a little to do with drug companies. The real trouble is that doctors – somewhat paradoxically – are simply not focused on actually treating disease"
Military Medical Malpractice: Seeking Recourse
April 20, 2008
"Outrage over a recent spate of incidents spurs fresh efforts to overturn the Feres doctrine, a 1950 Supreme Court decision denying active-duty service members the right to sue over medical errors."
Co-Payments Soar for Drugs With High Prices
April 14, 2008
"Health insurance companies are rapidly adopting a new pricing system for very expensive drugs, asking patients to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for prescriptions for medications that may save their lives or slow the progress of serious diseases."
Guidelines Seek to Reduce Medication Errors Involving Kids
April 11, 2008
"The group that accredits most U.S. hospitals issued guidelines Friday to help prevent medication errors in hospitalized children.
Among the recommendations: Children should be weighed in kilograms -- the global standard and the standard for medication dosing -- when they are admitted to a hospital."
Study: Med Mix-Ups Hurt 1 in 15 Kids
April 7, 2008
"Medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses and bad drug reactions harm roughly one out of 15 hospitalized children, according to the first scientific test of a new detection method.
That number is far higher than earlier estimates and bolsters concerns already heightened by well publicized cases like the accidental drug overdose of actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins last November."
Study: Tool to Identify Medication-Related Harm in US Children's Hospitals
April 1, 2008
"Adverse drug event rates in hospitalized children are substantially higher than previously described. Most adverse drug events resulted in temporary harm, and 22% were classified as preventable. Only 3.7% were identified by using traditional voluntary reporting methods. Our pediatric-focused trigger tool is effective at identifying adverse drug events in inpatient pediatric populations."
Patient Turns Harsh Light On Clinics Reusing Syringes
March 25, 2008
"When Evelyn McKnight was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, she knew she was facing the fight of her life. What she couldn't know was that the people treating her cancer would cause another life-threatening illness.
"
Dennis Quaid Recounts Twins' Drug Ordeal
March 16, 2008
"Chances are you probably know someone who has died, or nearly died, because of medical mistakes in a hospital. It's much more common than most people realize, and if it can happen to the children of a movie star, at one of the finest hospitals in the country, it can happen to anyone."
"AT LEAST 19 people died and hundreds became ill after being given heparin, a blood-thinning drug sold by Baxter International. A belated inspection of the Chinese plant where heparin's active ingredient was processed found "objectional conditions," and recent lab tests revealed an unknown contaminant in batches of the drug. Investigations so far have not identified what precisely caused the allergic reactions. Still, they have exposed major problems with how the Food and Drug Administration runs inspections that, even if not the cause of this particular catastrophe, will certainly lead to one."
March 5, 2008
"Hospitals are taking steps to prevent errors in the use of so-called high-alert medications -- those that, when given in the wrong dose or used incorrectly, have the highest risk of seriously harming or even killing a patient. Many of the high-alert medications are the most essential to hospitals. Among them are drugs to prevent blood clots, sedate patients, relieve pain and stabilize diabetics. But incorrect use of these drugs can lead to disasters, such as the accidental overdoses of heparin, an anticlotting drug, that killed three infants at an Indiana hospital in 2006 and threatened the newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid this past November. While there are 19 categories of high-alert medications, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, studies show that about eight medications, including heparin, account for 31% of all medication errors that harm patients."
The FDA and 'Off-Label' Drugs
March 4, 2008
"In 2004, Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, was fined a record $430 million for promoting its blockbuster drug Neurontin to doctors for uses for which it had not been approved. Under federal law, such marketing is illegal because "off-label" uses are not subject to the scrutiny of clinical trials necessary to show they are "safe and effective" for those purposes."
Subpoenas Issued to Prodisc Makers
February 5, 2008
"The New Jersey attorney general's office issued subpoenas Monday to two companies involved in the development of the Prodisc, an artificial spinal disk for the lower back. The Prodisc was the subject of an article in The New York Times last week about surgeons who had conducted the clinical research leading to the device's approval by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006. Doctors at about half of the 17 research centers involved stood to profit if the Prodisc succeeded, according to confidential information from a patient's lawsuit settled last year. While the companies have said the researchers' financial interests had no impact on the findings, it is unclear whether the disk's maker had fulfilled the legal obligation to inform the F.D.A. of the researchers' stakes."
FDA News Update
January 17, 2008
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a Public Health Advisory for parents and caregivers, recommending that over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold products should not be used to treat infants and children less than 2 years of age because serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur from such use. OTC cough and cold products include decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines, and antitussives (cough suppressants) for the treatment of colds.
"
Medical and Pharmaceutical
Dennis Quaid Tours Dallas Hospital
Bad-Behavior Cure Sought by Watchdog
Spohn Investigating Infant Death
Los Angeles County Failed to Track Problem King-Harbor Workers
Blue Cross Won't Cover Costs Tied to Hospital Errors
Releasing Data on Hospital Errors
"Questions Are the Answer" to Helping Patients Understand Their Health
Doctors Urge New Guidelines for Pregnant Women Using Anti-Depressants
Research Finds More Electronic Interference in Hospitals
Medical Litter: Device Debris Poses Serious Risk
Children's Hospitals Make Too Many Mistakes, Report Says
Insurer Must Pay for Boy's Treatment
More Health Care May Not Always Be Better
Hospital Acquired Infections, What You Need To Know
Dennis Quaid Talks Medical Errors with Congress
Barcoded Medication Administration: A Last Line of Defense
Hospital Quality Rewards May Backfire for the Poor, Study Finds
Heparin Contamination May Have Been Deliberate, F.D.A. Says
Are Your Medical Records at Risk?
Don't Judge a Drug Trial Study by Its Cover
Physicians Fixate On Diagnosis, Neglect Treatment
Military Medical Malpractice: Seeking Recourse
Co-Payments Soar for Drugs With High Prices
Guidelines Seek to Reduce Medication Errors Involving Kids
Study: Med Mix-Ups Hurt 1 in 15 Kids
Study: Tool to Identify Medication-Related Harm in US Children's Hospitals
Patient Turns Harsh Light on Clinics Reusing Syringes
Dennis Quaid Recounts Twins' Drug Ordeal
Hospitals Tackle High-Risk Drugs to Reduce Errors
Benton County • Clackamas County • Coos County • Crook County • Deschutes County • Douglas County • Jackson County • Jefferson County • Josephine County • Klamath County • Lane County • Lincoln County • Linn County • Marion County • Multnomah County • Polk County • Tillamook County • Washington County
FULL DISCLAIMER