For more news from around the web, see the Satellite Edition of this week’s Update over at ER Stories.
Canadian man dies after waiting seven hours in a Montreal emergency department waiting room.
Those little hits to the head on the football field … aren’t so little. Check out this new Sports Illustrated article on how minor head injuries “chip away at the brain” and cause long lasting memory problems.
Now your wife has even more time to cheat. Man uses fire extinguisher to bust through hotel window so that he can catch his wife cheating on him. Instead, he catches a bullet in the hip when breaks into the wrong room. Oooops.
After voting to nix medical malpractice reform, Illinois’ Supreme Court Chief Justice may be out of a job in November.
Another opinion on why expanding Medicaid with health reform is a bad idea.
Opiates are the opiate of the people. Are VA Hospitals pressuring docs to unnecessarily feed patients narcotic pain pills? Wonder whether Press Ganey and/or patient satisfaction had anything to do with the doctors losing their jobs.
Recent run on medical malpractice verdicts includes the following:
Indiana family awarded $1.1 million when 18 month old child dies after urologic surgery.
Minneapolis family awarded $4.6 million after death of 36 year old wife and mother.
Ohio jury awards $13.9 million to family of child born with cerebral palsy.
Chicago family awarded $3.27 million when difficult delivery results in nerve injury to infant’s arm.
Woman in Chicago suburbs awarded $11.5 million in obstetrical lawsuit.
When “Mr. Happy” is bleeding and the police find you in your apartment lying in a pool of blood, yes, medical care is “really necessary.” Cussing at the medical staff and spitting at people just before they’re going to sew up your cojones probably isn’t a good idea.
Alberta Hospitals wonder which is worse - discharging admitted patients too early to make room for more emergency patients or “historic” wait times in the emergency departments for care? The President of the Calgary physician’s association calls the decision a “gamble” on who is less likely to have an adverse outcome. The president of the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency wrote a letter to the health ministercontaining an “urgent warning that if more space in emergency rooms is not created, the system could soon collapse.”
Christina Aguilera goes to emergency department after “falling down steps” and cutting her lip. Shortly thereafter, she files for divorce from her husband Jordan Bratman. In other news, JCAHO has now determined that both steps and Jordan Bratman are patient safety hazards and is requiring that all future hospitals be built on one level and that Jordan Bratman stay 500 feet away from all hospital premises.
Do you need Stadol that bad? Arkansas doesn’t mess around with prescription forgeries. Woman eligible for up to six years in prison for attempting to obtain a controlled substance by fraud and up to an additional ten years in prison for actually getting the controlled substance.
“After voting to nix medical malpractice reform, Illinois’ Supreme Court Chief Justice may be out of a job in November.”
It tells you something that the insurers who back this PAC are primarily going after him for allegedly being “soft on crime”, rather than their real beef that he doesn’t agree the risk should be regulated out of the insurance business.
Enemies of clinical care such as this awful judge should be shunned by all product and service providers. His heater breaks down on a 10 degreesday, let him freeze.
Wanted to pass this one along. Can even a child be held negligent? You bet: 4 years old and being sued for running into someone on her bike.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/nyregion/29young.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
After 17 years at a VA Medical Center, including 9 years managing a primary care clinic as an RN, I can say with certainty that there is great pressure to give narcotics to patients…
I can tell you that, as a pharmacist, my most hated medication of all time is Stadol nasal spray. I’ve seen forged prescriptions for Stadol (including a doctor’s wife who worked as his office manager), a woman who picked up her rx for two and used both in the pharmacy bathroom and overdosed, and countless others who always needed early refills.
On concussions & football … High school player dies after getting hit, having sat out several games for a prior concussion. http://www.maxpreps.com/news/YJQ_d-RlEd-YiQAcxJSkrA/kansas-football-player-and-homecoming-king-dies-after-99-72-win.htm
As to the expansion of Medicaid. Hospitals make money on the elective procedures that are paid for by private insurance and lose money on gevernment pay, especially Medicaid. It is the private insurnace that allows the hospital to treat Medicaid. With this healthcare reform, peoples private insurance costs are going up. Their deductables are going up so much that now they cant afford to have the elective procedures. As a result, the hospitals are losing money. So, the only thing the hospitals can do is to restrict services and close. So, healthcare has expanded Medicaid to the point that no one can afford to care for Medicaid patients. The Camels back has been broken.
Looks like the people of Illinois are not quite wholly owned by the insurance industry, as physicians are:
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/229640-justice-kilbride-prevails-in-costly-ill.-retention-election
If they wanted to beat him though, it looks like there’s a better angle to play against a judge than “soft on crime”
http://volokh.com/2010/11/03/three-iowa-justices-defeated-for-same-sex-marriage-ruling/