The pen is mightier than the infection!

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 weeks 1 day (well.blogs.nytimes.com)

The pen is mightier than the lawsuit ...at least when it comes to avoiding surgical mistakes. A pen can be used to mark the part of the patient's body meant for surgery. It can be done when the patient is wide awake and able to participate and, if necessary, able to say, "No, not that leg, THAT ONE!!" The phenomenon is called wrong-sided surgery and the solution, it seems, is a laundry pen.

You'd be surprised how much that helps

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: surgery torts lawsuits medical mistakes malpractice infections hospitals surgeons

Violence against nurses finally gets some press

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 months 1 week (www.nytimes.com)

NUrses treat all kinds of people, including the ones who think nothing of--or are too out of it to think at all--kicking or otherwise attacking their nurse. Nurses have never been strangers to violence. What's new is that the nurses and their unions have been reporting these incidents and are starting to insist on better security at hospitals.

“Nurses find different kinds of responses from their administrations and different levels of support,” said Dr. S. Gerbich of the University of Minnesota

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: violence nurses health care professionals hospitals patients

American Company Tries Western-Style Hospitals in China

kavin submitted, created time 4 months 4 weeks (buzz.yahoo.com)

An American company is trying to popularize Western-style hospitals that cater to the elite in China. But it faces significant hurdles when it comes to getting the Chinese to pay for its services.

Chindex International, a Bethesda, Md., company featured in today’s Washington Post, has opened hospitals and clinics where foreign physicians and some of China’s top doctors charge as much as several hundred dollars for a single visit. That’s steep compared to the $10 or $20 per-visit charge at state-owned hospitals

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: China economics insurance Western-style hospitals hospitals health insurance

Women's mortality rates for cardiovascular disease differ widely among hospitals

BIOBOSS submitted, created time 1 year 4 months (www.eurekalert.org)

Women treated for cardiovascular disease at the nation's best- performing hospitals have a 39 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate when compared with women at the nation's poorest-performing hospitals, according to the fourth annual HealthGrades Women's Health Outcomes in US Hospitals study, released today. The study also found that, for women, the largest quality gaps between the best-performing and poorest-performing hospitals were in heart failure and interventional cardiology procedures.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Womens mortality rates cardiovascular disease hospitals