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As U.S. deaths from the H1N1 virus have mounted in recent months, media reports began to include the inevitable comments from hospital spokespeople that the patients who died had "pre-existing conditions," with no specifics given.
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Be sure to include home care services in any pandemic response plans. Fortunately, more than half (53%) of the nation's home medical equipment and service providers have formal plans to respond to a pandemic flu, and another 23% have stockpiled N95 masks or other supplies related to a flu pandemic, according to a survey of 1,500 providers conducted at the beginning of the most recent flu scare.
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The nation's most recent scare with the H1N1 flu virus showed both the good and the bad of health care providers' preparations for a serious pandemic, and the assessments are largely positive.
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The reporting of critical test results and lab values is the kind of process that makes a risk manager nervous if you think about it too much. How do you really know if your organization is reporting test results promptly, efficiently, and effectively, every single time?
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After an instance of wrong-site surgery that still defies explanation, officials at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence agreed to conduct an extensive examination of safety procedures in the surgery department.
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Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are clearly on the radar of Kathleen Sebelius, the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She recently called for action to prevent HAIs in praising two new HHS reports on the quality of health care in America.
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News: A woman suffered cardiac arrest while at home. Hospital paramedics arrived, but attempts to resuscitate her with a Lifepak 11 monitor and defibrillator failed. Forty minutes later, the woman was pronounced dead. The decedent's estate sued the hospital and was awarded $5.3 million in damages.
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Illustrating the potential liability when a test result falls through the cracks, a Philadelphia jury recently awarded a widow $2.19 million in a malpractice suit against St. Joseph's Hospital and two ED physicians.
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Every risk manager wants to believe that the credentialing process has properly vetted all the organization's health care professionals to ensure that they are qualified and have no known criminal record. But that is not always the case. Too often, risk managers get a phone call alerting them that one of their staff or physicians has a problem that did not show up in the credentialing process.
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Testifying before a crowded hearing in Washington, DC, on the oversight of helicopter medical services, the head of a leading air ambulance organization recently promised lawmakers that the dismal safety record of the industry can be improved.
