Certain breeds of dogs have historically been classified as bully breeds and subject to special rules. For instance, military bases ban certain bully breeds. And, in the past, many local governments passed bans prohibiting residents from owning specified bully breeds. But surprisingly, that legislative trend is now reversing itself. State…
Roger Bates got into the grain auger to break up material that would have clogged the machine. But, the corn sucked him down so fast that he could not use the chain he had brought in with him as a safety measure. Lucky for Mr. Bates, his grandson reacted quickly…
Almost everyone who is reading this has some connection to social media. If you are not on Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram or other social media, I would be wiling to bet your kids, spouse, girlfriend, grandkids, boyfriend or someone else close to you is using social media. And if you…
According to research conducted by John Hopkins Medical Center, diagnostic errors do the most harm to patients and result in the most medical malpractice claims and additional expenses. Diagnostic errors can be either a missed diagnosis, a delayed diagnosis or a wrong diagnosis. Some of the most common reasons for diagnostic…
As we wrap-up Patient Safety Week, we want to conclude with some steps you can take to prevent being the victim of a medical error: 1. Write down questions you have of your doctor so you do not forget to ask about issues that are important to you; 2. Do not be…
Earlier in the week, we discussed the "never event" of wrong site surgeries. Another never event is patient falls. Patient falls in hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities should never happen. In fact, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will typically not reimburse medical facilities for additional medical treatment that is necessitated…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each day roughly 1 in every 20 hospitalized patients will develop a healthcare-associated infection as a result of receiving medical care. And, that statistic does not include infections acquired at doctor’s offices and long-term care facilities. There are several types of healthcare-acquired infections…
National Patient Safety Week continues and so does our discussion about preventable medical errors. Medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the United States. Only cancer and heart-disease claim more lives. Accidents, stroke, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease are not even close to the deaths caused by preventable medical…
An estimated 2,080 wrong site surgeries errors occur each year in the United States. The term wrong site surgery actually encompasses several different types of errors that occur in the operating room including wrong site, wrong side, wrong procedure and wrong patient surgeries. Wrong site surgeries are "never events" — meaning they…
In honor of Patient Safety Week, all of our blog posts this week will be related to medical malpractice and patient safety. To start, we want to give you some idea of the size of the problem and then we will examine some of the most common types of preventable medical…