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News: A 59-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for elective angioplasty. Ten hours after surgery, he experienced a severe adverse reaction to anti-clotting medication and suffered intracranial bleeding. He had a seizure, went into a coma, and died one week later. The patients estate brought suit against the cardiologist and the hospital for negligence. While the doctor was exonerated, the hospital was found liable, and the jury awarded the plaintiff $830,000 in damages, which included $100,000 for the widows loss-of-consortium claim.
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An influential congressman is calling for a broad investigation of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), alleging that the accrediting body is ineffective, torn by conflicts of interest, and rife with financial improprieties.
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This article reviews multiple aspects of heart failure, providing direction for workup and management of heart failure patients. All recommendations follow current published guidelines. Unresolved and controversial issues are reviewed, and future therapies are proposed.
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Several important changes were announced to Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health-care Organizations surveyors at a recent training session in Chicago, including new definitions for some types of sentinel events.
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Quality improvement projects can be especially challenging if you try to implement them on a systemwide basis across many health care institutions, but a diabetes project in Iowa shows that it can be done if you give people the tools and let individual organizations decide how best to use them.
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Patient safety can be jeopardized when the transitions or handoffs that occur during patient care are not managed effectively. Many errors come from slips that occur during the exchange of materials, people, and/or supplies.
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Autopsies can detect clinically important diagnostic discrepancies and help an organization improve the quality of care, according to a new report released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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Quality of care is improved significantly when emergency department (ED) physicians are allowed to deliver clot-busting drugs to appropriate stroke patients without waiting for dedicated stroke teams, according to a new study.
