Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

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Alarm fatigue happens when medical workers overwhelmed by constant and loud alarm rings turn down the volume on the devices, shut them off or simply ignore them. These actions can lead to serious personal injury or wrongful death.

As hospitals invest in more and more sophisticated equipment to save lives, nurses and other hospital workers especially in Intensive Care Units have to deal with the constant and sometimes very loud ringing of alarms during their shift. A recent study estimated that the average number of alarms that sounded per bed per day in one ICU was 771. This is obviously more than staff and patients can take and hospitals have to make a priority of reviewing their alarm system or they may risk loss of their accreditation.

In a very interesting article, Lena H. Sun from the Washington Post, gives an overview of recent Medical Malpractice cases related to Alarm Fatigue and what measures are being taken by hospitals to address this growing medical concern.

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Failure to diagnose a heart condition may be medical malpractice that can lead to death. Conventionally used indicators to diagnose heart failure show potential for cardiovascular injury but do not provide adequate risk control for those at higher risk of heart failure or those newly diagnosed with HF. A study published in the July 3 issue of JAMA shows that collaborative care based on peptide level screening reduce the combined rates of left ventricular systolic dysfunction, diastolic dysfunction, and heart failure as well as emergency cardiovascular hospitalizations.

Heart failure happens when the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to support other organs.This serious condition is affecting 5.7 million Americans every year. It costs the nation 34.4 billion every year in health care services, medications, and lost productivity. Diseases that damage the heart including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes-are common causes of heart failure. Smoking; being overweight; eating foods high in fat, cholesterol, and sodium; and physical inactivity also increase the risk of developing heart failure.

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Failure%20to%20diagnose%20sepsis.jpgDelay to treat or Failure to diagnose Sepsis may lead to the loss of multiple organs and ultimately to death. Every year 500,000 Americans will be hospitalized because they suffer from severe Sepsis and 250,000 will die from it. Sepsis is a condition that is usually triggered by a bacterial infection of the bloodstream. Early diagnosis is key to preventing mortality. Thanks to a new automated diagnostic test developed by a team of researchers led by Nathan Ledeboer from the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), USA, sepsis could be diagnosed much faster and many lives could be saved.

The study is published this week in PLOS Medicine.

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Aneurysm.jpgIn order to prevent Medical Malpractice, observation should be the treatment of choice for all stable brain aneurysms including the smallest ones as all brain aneurysms, even those smaller than the current 7-mm treatment threshold, have 12 times more of a chance to break and lead to a catastrophic brain injury or death if they are growing in size according a recent study published in the Journal of Radiology and lead by J. Pablo Villablanca, M.D., chief of diagnostic neuroradiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. The study also demonstrates that Aneurysm growth, size, and smoking were associated with increased rupture risk.

30,000 Americans each year suffer ruptured brain aneurysms and 40% of them die. Among the survivors, two-thirds suffer permanent neurological damage. A cerebral aneurysm is a growth in a blood vessel in the brain. If it breaks, blood is leaked into or around the brain, which can cause brain damage or death.

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The Bronx collaborative, a group of hospital and medical insurers demonstrated in a study that patients who were participating in a special program to manage transition between hospital and home were less likely to be re-admitted to hospitals than patients who received the current standard care.

Medical problems that lead to hospital re-admissions can often be prevented by personal contacts with patients before and after their discharge. Intensive pre-discharge education, post discharge follow up appointment with the physician and phone calls to review medication and discuss concerns are significantly lowering the re-admission rate and improving patient satisfaction.

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Drug-induced liver injury (also called DILI or drug-induced hepatotoxicity) is a significant cause of personal injury and wrongful death in many patient populations. According to a study published in in the June issue of Gastroenterology induced liver injury is caused in 75% of cases by a single prescription, in 16% of cases by a dietary supplement and in 9% of cases by multiple agents.

The population based study performed in Iceland, demonstrated that the incidence of DILI was the highest reported to date. Lead author Einar Björnsson, Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, National University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, presents the study in the video below.

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Installation of antimicrobial copper surface is a very effective way to fight infections and prevent personal injury due to hospital negligence. A unique study presented by the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) at the International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC) in Geneva, investigated the economic benefits of deploying antimicrobial copper touch surfaces in intensive care units (ICUs) to fight the rampant international epidemic of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) . The model is transparent and the results show rapid return on the investment.

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Dosing errors, delay to treat or failure to diagnose a medical condition because of poor interaction between humans and computers or loss of data can result in serious personal injury and wrongful death.

Poor choice or inadequate implementation of Emergency Department Information Systems (EDISs) can threaten health care quality and patient safety. Findings and recommendations from two work groups from the American College of Emergency Physicians were released in a report last Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

The report indicates that The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “meaningful use” incentive programs as well as additional requirements for detailed reporting of quality metrics have been major catalysts for the development and implementations of EDISs. However systems functionality varies greatly and it is crucial for emergency providers to actively participate in decisions about EDISs selection, implementation and monitoring.

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During colonoscopy, endoscopists can find potentially precancerous growths (polyps) and remove them, however some polyps especially on the right side of the colon are more difficult to detect. Failure to detect these polyps reduces the efficacy of colonoscopy for colon cancer screening.

By using a quarterly report card, endoscopists at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis were able to increase the overall adjusted adenoma (precancerous polyp) detection rate from 44.7 percent to 53.9 percent, and to improve the cecal intubation rate from 95.6 percent to 98.1 percent. The complete study can be found in the June issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE)

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Our partner Stephen Mackauf and John E. Hall Jr. from Hall Booth Smith, P.C. will co chair the 12th Annual Advanced Forum of the American Conference Institute on Obstetric Malpractice Claims on June 26th-27 2013 in Philadelphia. For more iinformation see our prior post here.