Newsspots 

© The Medical-Legal News 2007

• According to the Chicago Tribune JCAHO does not check meaningful safety factors in hospitals and underestimates the number of patient deaths.

— Legalaffairs.org

• Waste and errors cost the nation’s health system $100 billion per year.

— Commonwealth Fund

• Qui-tam suit: Pediatrix Medical Group will reimburse the government $25 million for upcoded claims on services for babies. The infants were not as ill as the billing claimed.

— Modern Healthcare

• Public Citizen, citizen.org, found in a study that Florida had 1,555 doctors practicing who had been disciplined by the state board. PC studied the national practitioner bank and found that 5 percent of all doctors caused more than half of malpractice judgments and settlements. Related story, Page 10.

— Newscom

• Around 14 percent of Americans receive medical help for illnesses or injuries either too late or not at all.

— CP Health Beat

• Bayer’s Trasylol, a heart surgery drug, has been implicated in a heightened risk of heart attack, strokes and kidney damage.

— JAMA

• A Wisconsin nurse killed a patient as a result of a drug error. She was criminally charged with a felony, which alarmed many in the health care industry.  Criminal charges were later dropped. See related story, Page 5.

— RN

• HIPAA-wise: Patient confidentiality can be broken when nondisclosure would result in harm to the patient.

— RN

• Firefighters, even though they wear much protective gear, are exposed to a lot of cancer causing toxins. As such, they have higher-then-average rates of several cancers.

— Journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine

• The baldness drug Propecia (Finasteride) causes men to have lowered PSA readings by as much as 40 to 50 percent.

— The Lancet

• Attack on attacks: A few hospitals now have MDCT scanners. These scanners can detect a heart attack in about 15 seconds.

— Circulation

• Home trampolines sent 89,000 people to the hospital in 2004. Some deaths resulted.

—  American Academy of Pediatrics

• A new hair-dryer like device called the LouseBuster, has been found effective in lice treatment. The device is welcome because lice are developing resistance to many insecticides. Info: leesiegel@ucomm. utah.edu.

— Pediatrics

• About 10 percent of the population at large is alcoholic. Among lawyers the rate is about 18-20 percent. The rate rises to 25 percent after 20 years of practice.

— American Bar Association

• A doctor was found guilty for being vicariously liable for the act of a nurse he did not employ during a routine removal of a breathing tube. The Alabama Supreme Court overturned the verdict stating that no master/servant relationship existed.

— Medical Malpractice Law and Strategy

• EMTALA fact: If a patient is admitted to a hospital from the ED, EMTALA rules do not apply as this is not a transfer or discharge.

— EMTALA

• In a study, it was found that employers, workers’ comp and private insurers pick up 30 percent of hospital costs associated with Medicare and Medicaid. In short, those who can pay are overcharged.

— Millman Inc. via Medical Malpractice Law and Strategy

• Pharmaceutical company Merck pulled the plug on its lobbying campaign that was encouraging states to make its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil mandatory.

— Newscom

• The physician-patient relationship does not have to be a formal contract but can simply be implied, according to recent cases.

— Medical Malpractice Law and Strategy

• The new spiral CT scan to detect lung cancer has its downside: Many people have false positives and undergo expensive and unnecessary testing.

— UC Berkeley

• Many hazardous drugs are found in the systems of healthcare workers. The drugs are known to be types that can damage DNA or cause cancers. The drugs’ presence is believed to result from the handling, cutting, crushing  and administering of the medicines.

— American Journal of Nursing