Category Archives: Patient Safety Activism
If You Feel O.K., Maybe You Are O.K.
February 28, 2012Op-Ed Contributor By H. GILBERT WELCH Published: February 27, 2012 EARLY diagnosis has become one of the most fundamental precepts of modern medicine. It goes something like this: The best
Medical device makers gain political momentum
February 27, 2012Article by: JIM SPENCER and JAMES WALSH , Star Tribune staff writers Updated: February 27, 2012 – As victims of faulty medical devices press for tougher standards, the focus of
Substantially Unsafe – Medical Devices Pose Great Threat to Patients; safeguards Must be Strengthened, Not Weakened
February 20, 2012February 2012 www.citizen.org Regulation of medical devices—a $350 billion industry that includes such products as heart and brain stents, artificial hips and implantable defibrillators—is at a crossroads. With a major
Hospital Infection Rates Now on Medicare Website
February 2, 2012NationalJournal by Margot Sanger-Katz Updated: February 1, 2012 | 2:48 p.m – Hospital-acquired infections are a leading cause of death in this country, with estimates of the death toll nearing 100,000 lives
Safe To Be Sick
January 31, 2012National Journal By Maggie Fox Updated: January 26, 2012 | 10:25 a.m. – Thousands of people die every year from infections they get at a hospital. With prodding from the
Hospital Errors Persist, State Probes Rare
January 30, 2012by Lisa Chedekel – Jan 29, 2012 9:00 pm – Incidents of pressure ulcers, wrong-site surgeries and other surgical errors reported by Connecticut hospitals have increased in the last five
Dangerous infections are more likely in pediatric intensive-care units
January 27, 2012But hospitals and parents can take steps to prevent them, our investigation found. Having a child in intensive care is scary enough without the added worry of deadly hospital-acquired infections.
The Money Traps in U.S. Health Care
January 23, 2012Why does an appendectomy in Germany cost roughly a quarter what it costs in the United States? Or an M.R.I. scan cost less than a third as much, on average,
Blumenthal Sponsors Bill To Protect Patients From Unsafe Medical Devices
January 19, 2012U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has joined two other senators introducing legislation designed to protect patients from unsafe medical devices without derailing the current fast-tracking system of medical device approvals. Read
U.S. to Force Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors
January 17, 2012To head off medical conflicts of interest, the Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and