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8/18/08 - Doctors Medical Center fined for fatal errors
MercuryNews
"Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo has been fined $50,000 for medical errors in which two patients died."
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8/17/08 - Mother's death leaves family questioning care
PostTribune
"“She was not looking forward to this surgery,” Cheryl Harrell said. “She was scared to death of it.""
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8/17/08 - Iowans fired for alleged privacy breaches
DesMoinesRegister
"Medical workers who share confidential patient information with other people run the risk of being fired. Here are some firings that have become public through claims for unemployment benefits:"
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8/15/08 - State investigating Enloe after hospital error
CentralValleyBusinessTimes
"Enloe Medical Center in Chico is being investigated by the state Department of Public Health after a July 31 incident involving a patient and a mis-adjusted intravenous feed.
The error involved a medication that was administered at a rate greater than what was ordered, the hospital says."
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8/14/08 - Hearing Today in Infants' Heparin Overdose Case
YourLawyer.com
"On July 6, 17 premature babies being treated in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Christus Spohn Hospital South in Corpus Christi, Texas were overdosed with the blood thinner, Heparin. The deaths of twin babies—Keith and Kaylynn Garcia—are believed linked to the hospital error"
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8/12/08 - Abbott patient burned during surgery
StarTribune
"A patient having heart pacemaker surgery at Abbott Northwestern Hospital was burned on her face, lips and shoulder when a fire burst out from under the sterile drapes covering her body."
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8/08/08 - More Insurers Refusing to Cover Hospitals’ Costly Mistakes
findingDulcinea
"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will no longer pay for major medical errors. Several insurers have done the same in other states, and more still are moving in that direction."
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8/07/08 - Illinois ponders how to treat medical errors
ChicagoTribune
"While other states move to prevent serious medical errors in hospitals, Illinois is dragging its feet.
Nearly 20 states are contemplating withholding Medicaid payments from hospitals that commit serious medical mistakes. Illinois Medicaid officials say they haven't decided what to do."
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8/07/08 - Past time to prevent
TheTimes, NJ
" AARP New Jersey's chief legislative advocate Marilyn Askin has recently been informed by her doctors that she must receive hip replacement surgery. Marilyn trusts her doctors and knows that the procedure is fairly routine. Thanks to the Patient Safety Act of 2004, she also knows that 450 medical errors occur in the state each year. Yet Marilyn has no idea how many of these medical errors occurred in the hospital where she is being admitted -- or which hospitals may have a better record. Patients like Marilyn can only wonder and worry about the safety of their medical facilities."
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8/03/08 - More doctors opt for full disclosure
BostonHerald
"More doctors opt for full disclosure
Hospitals and doctors are not required by law to tell patients when medical mistakes are made, but safety advocates say more and more hospitals are tackling the unpopular shroud of secrecy."
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8/01/08 - Fatal Medical Mistakes You Can Avoid
ReadersDigest
"An alarming new report out this week shows that fatal medication errors have skyrocketed. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, looked at U.S. death certificates from 1983 to 2004 (nearly 50 million of them), but especially at the approximately 225,000 where the cause of death was a fatal medication error (FME). What did they find?"
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8/01/08 - Lawmaker, AARP seek data on hospital errors
Courierpostonline
"AARP and Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, D-Gloucester, in a telephone conference sponsored by the AARP, discussed releasing to the public data on medical mistakes by health care facilities."
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7/29/2008 - Dr. Kumar had a radio interview on station WHTC-AM in MI. The host was Red Kingman, who hosts a morning called Red’s Place.
07/28/2008 - Dr. Kumar was interviewed for Healthwise, WQUB, with Mandy Vilizant. This will air Wednesday July 30th in IL.
7/27/2008 - Dr. Kumar and John McCormack had a radio interview on 95.9 WATD out of Boston. Ellen Kagan was the host, and it aired 10am ES
7/27/08 - Uninsured doctors on the rise in South Florida
Sun-Sentinel
"South Florida has become the nation's capital for doctors without medical malpractice insurance"
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7/26/08 - Who will pay for errors in your medical care?
GreenvilleOnline
"When a sponge is left in a patient after an operation or he is given the wrong blood, additional surgeries and complications ensue. But who pays for that follow-up care?"
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7/19/08 - Fully inform patients about medical errors
CourierPostOnline
The state's annual list of preventable medical mistakes must get more specific to benefit patients.
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7/18/08 - Should a Surgeon Be Punished for Operating on the Wrong Side?
The Wall Street Journal
A few weeks ago, a surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center operated on the wrong side of a patient. This is a grievous error, one of the so-called “never events” that’s just not supposed to happen anymore. It still does happen though, so what was perhaps most striking about this incident was the openness with which the hospital administration handled the whole thing.
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7/13/08 - She expected routine surgery -- but not flesh-eating bacteria
Los Angeles Times
Two years later, Alicia Cole says she's still recovering from her experience at Providence Saint Joseph. The hospital says it ranks 'above average' in the state for surgical infection prevention.
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7/11/08 - New Hospital Rankings From 'US News'
U.S. News & World Report - Washington,DC,USA
But does anyone have a better way to stop what arguably is the most preventable of all medical errors—cutting into a patient in the wrong place?
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7/11/08 - New hospital policies aim to prevent mistakes, conflicts
Wausau Daily Herald - Wausau,WI,USA
The goal is to reduce potential for medical errors that could harm patients. Medication errors frequently result from communication breakdowns, ...
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7/7/08 - The Dennis Quaid Medical Legal Case: Q & A with Attorney Clifford Rieders
"The number of patients who die due to preventable medical errors in US hospitals is staggering - the equivalent of two 747s crashing every day."
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6/30/08 - Data on number of patients injured in serious medical 'never events'
"About 100 patients suffer injuries each month in California because of preventable medical errors, the Los Angeles Times reports."
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6/30/08 - Hospitals work to cure errors
"Metro Detroit hospitals are stepping up efforts to reduce costly and often traumatic medical errors, in preparation for new rules that will make them bear the cost of the mistakes they make when treating patients."
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6/30/08 - Serious patient errors at California hospitals disclosed in state filings
"About 100 Californians a month are being harmed in adverse events considered preventable. A lawmaker proposes banning reimbursements to hospitals for some types of injuries."
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6/27/08 - WHO Proposes Checklist to Reduce Surgery Errors
"Since the 1930s, airplane pilots have run through checklists before taking off. Now the World Health Organization wants surgeons all over the globe to use them, too."
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6/26/08 - Are Perks Compromising MD Ethics?
"Conflict Of Interest Issues Raised By Drug Company Freebies Given To Doctors"
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6/22/08 - A Script for Safety
"Veronica Beasley called to her husband Bill to phone the paramedics. The Westminster woman was wracked with stomach pain and a “creepy” feeling up the back of her neck that she said she knew was anaphylactic shock."
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6/19/08 - Errors cause 98,000 hospital deaths
from Cynthia McCormick |
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"A state police trooper currently stationed at the South Yarmouth barracks, John McCormack is accustomed to working within a chain of command and respecting authority. So when his 1-year-old daughter, Taylor, ended up at Children's Hospital Boston, he let the doctors take charge. It's a decision, McCormack says, he lived to regret."
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6/19/08 - Deaths raise concerns at Mount Sinai
"An Eyewitness News investigation has found some unexpected deaths at Mount Sinai that have two families sounding a warning about weekend care at the renown hospital."
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5/24/08 - Vets taking PTSD drugs die in sleep
"A Putnam County veteran who was taking medication prescribed for post-traumatic stress disorder died in his sleep earlier this month, in circumstances similar to the deaths of three other area veterans earlier this year."
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| 5/20/08 - John McCormack, chapter subject and part of the Fatal Care team, photographed in May presenting a book to Patty Labelle, an advocate for reduction of preventable medical errors. |
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5/14/08 - Today, Dennis Quaid testified against pharmaceutical company liability caps before a congressional subcommittee. Quaid mentioned the three Indiana family heparin tragedy that Quantros President and CMO, Sanjaya Kumar MD, carefully describes in his new book Fatal Care: Survive in the U.S. Health System. In addition, Quaid referenced an analogy that appears on page 15 of the Prologue when he stated:
" Approximately 100,000 U.S. patients die every year because of medical errors in hospitals alone. It’s a toll we would
never tolerate in aviation, nearly the equivalent of a full 747 crashing every single day."
- Dennis Quaid, May 14, 2008, to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Listen to the Audio Excerpt from the Book
Pembroke story featured in book on medical errors
4/15/08--After John McCormack’s 13-month-old daughter died in 2000 after doctors delayed emergency surgery, the Pembroke resident became an advocate for patient safety.
Click Here to view the full article
 Click HERE to launch a video of John McCormack, father of Taylor McCormack (Chapter 5, Fatal Care), testifying to the Massachusetts Public Health Committee about the Patient Safety Act, H 2059
Click to get Windows Media Player or Quick Time
“Medication errors injure at least 1.5 million Americans annually”
~ Source: “Preventing Medication Errors,” Institute of Medicine, July 2006
"We need to reduce costs and medical errors with better information technology"
~ President Bush, State of the Union Address, January 23, 2007
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