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New Study Shows Hospital Infections Still Too Frequent

Published on March 18, 2016

Health Care-Associated Infections is the first report in a series of five in-depth reports analyzing current healthcare safety trends in the U.S. Released March 17 during Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 13-19), this new HAI report shows that hospitals are making strides in avoiding central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections Read More…

Robert Allen Faces Federal Charges Against Drug Cases

Published on March 12, 2016

Yesterday we alerted Arizonans about former Phoenix surgery tech Robert Allen “Rocky” who put patients at risk for Hepatitis B & C or HIV at two valley hospitals: John C. Lincoln Medical Center and Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. But today we’d like to dive deeper into Allen’s employment history, for it brings up a very Read More…

Two Arizona Hospitals Send Letters to Patients who may be at Risk for Hepatitis B & C or HIV

Published on March 10, 2016

News just came in that an Arizona hospital exposes diseases to various patients. What diseases are we talking about? Patients who had surgery at John C. Lincoln Medical Center or Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in 2014 are receiving a letter that they may have been exposed to Hepatitis B & C or HIV. A former surgical technician, Read More…

Hospital Performs Surgery on the Wrong Baby

Published on February 28, 2016

You’ve probably heard that this happens; a surgical procedure mix up is, unfortunately, more common than one might think but you never expect to have it happen to you or a loved one. A couple delivers a healthy baby boy named Nate at the University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee. Soon after birth, Nate was Read More…

Can Google Glass Reduce Hospital Visits for Nursing Home Patients?

Published on February 16, 2016

You may have heard of new technologies like Google Glass being used in operation rooms, but a new company is hoping to implement this technology in long-term care facilities – such as Phoenix nursing homes – across the nation. Third Eye Health uses Google Glass to connect nursing home staff with doctors in order to Read More…

Gastroschisis Birth Defect: Everything You Need to Know

Published on February 8, 2016

Finding out you’re going to be a parent is often a very exciting and simultaneously frightening thing. You hope for a safe pregnancy and delivery – for both the mother and child’s sake, you worry with “what ifs” and do everything you can to avoid them. The truth is – sometimes what’s within your power Read More…

National Birth Defect Prevention Month

Published on January 13, 2016

If you’re currently pregnant or have children, you may have researched different birth defects at some point in time. We’ve written about a few on our blog, as well, including those associated with antidepressants or the popular medication often prescribed for morning sickness, Zofran. For Birth Defect Prevention Month, the goal is to arm mommies-to-be Read More…

Baby Dies After Contracting Legionnaires’ Disease in Hospital

Published on January 7, 2016

Ryland Joseph was a happy baby from birth. The only son of Rodd and Kellie Joseph, Ryland was the center of their universe. But a mere four months after he was born, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. His parents were told his only chance for survival was a bone Read More…

ECRI Institute’s Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2016 (Part 2)

Published on January 3, 2016

Medical malpractice is among the top three leading causes of death in the United States—just after heart disease and cancer. New technologies are released every year hoping to minimize the likelihood of life-changing injuries or death happening to patients, but often times these technologies introduce new risks. That’s why every year, the ECRI Institute releases Read More…

Study Found Medication Errors in 1 out of 2 Surgeries

Published on November 19, 2015

Researchers from the anesthesiology department of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) observed 277 random procedures for seven months there and found that half of all surgeries involved some kind of medication error or unintended drug side effects. Of these errors, more than one-third resulted in harm the patient. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine identified medical Read More…