A significant percentage of Americans have “health literacy” ranked as “basic” or “below basic,” according to a study conducted by the federal government. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) defines “health literacy” as the ability to read, comprehend, and make use of everyday written medical or other health information.…
The arrest of a radiologic technician in New Hampshire on charges that he allegedly infected at least thirty-one hospital patients with hepatitis C, has led to concerns about similar outbreaks in at least seven other states where he worked in recent years, including Maryland. The technician also has a history…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently warned doctors and consumers about a risk associated with a relatively new drug, Ampyra, used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). Patients who are just beginning to take the drug showed an elevated risk of seizures, and patients with kidney impairments were particularly…
Several groups of doctors and health care officials are calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to modify its guidelines for opioid painkiller prescriptions. The proposed changes would include restrictions on “off-label” uses, meaning uses not explicitly approved by the FDA, and limits on the amount of time…
Serious complications and injuries can result from discrepancies between the medications patients take at home, the medications they receive in the hospital, and the medications they take home with them. To prevent such medication errors, a recent study out of Johns Hopkins recommends that hospitals train teams of nurses and…
Hospitals must regularly contend with medical emergencies, such as heart attacks or allergic drug reactions, that require an immediate response. Hospitals maintain supplies for such emergencies, known as “crash carts,” that contain equipment and medications for diagnosing and, if necessary, reviving patients. Monitoring and maintaining the crash carts requires the…
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations of fraud in marketing certain drugs and of failure to report safety data, according to a DOJ press release. The DOJ had filed a three-count criminal…
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a consolidated putative class action lawsuit against pharmaceutical company and its affiliated marketing companies. A trial court had ruled that plaintiffs lacked standing to sue the defendants over alleged off-label marketing of certain drugs. The plaintiffs were consumers, whose doctors…
Electronic health records (EHRs), used in place of voluminous paper records, may significantly reduce the risk of errors, and therefore medical malpractice claims. This finding is from a study published in the June 25 online edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Doctors have been very slow to adopt many…
A study published recently in the Annals of Emergency Medicine looked at whether the use of a trained, professional interpreter with limited-English or non-English-speaking patients in hospital emergency departments (ED’s) reduced the incidence of medication errors and other mistakes. The study compared situations in which a trained interpreter was present…