September 29th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Expert Interviews, Video
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My friend and fellow blogger, Paul Levy, is the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. He was recently listed as one of the “top 9 people to watch in healthcare” – thanks to his pioneering efforts on behalf of patient safety and transparency of hospital quality data.
I recently interviewed Paul to get his take on how patients can plan for a safe hospital stay, and what Paul is doing at BIDMC to advance quality care for all. Many thanks to Johnson & Johnson for the unrestricted grant that allowed me to create the videos.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV1oRLNtLhc
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY1GJPQ_0uI
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRWS4p9t-9Q
Check out Johnson & Johnson’s YouTube Health Channel for more great videos.
September 29th, 2009 by Nancy Brown, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
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The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) proposed sex education guidelines are stirring up quite the controversy – before they are even published! I will give you one guess who is attacking them – oh come on, guess!
That is correct – conservative and religious groups are attacking the guidelines because of their portrayal of issues like sex education, abortion and homosexuality. Specifically, the guidelines describe sexual abstinence as only one of a range of choices available to young people to prevent disease and avoid pregnancy. The guidelines also dare to suggest that families discuss masturbation with their children, starting as young as five, but definitely with preteens.
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This post, UN’s Sex Education Guide Generates Opposition, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..
September 29th, 2009 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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This post isn’t being written to frighten you or to cause you to mistrust hospitals.
It’s to make you aware that medical errors do occur, but there are steps that you can take to help prevent medical errors from happening.
First, some vital information
According to a recent investigation by the Hearst Corporation, a staggering 200,000 Americans will die each year from preventable medical errors and hospital infections. This report comes ten years after the highly-publicized report, “To Err Is Human” which found 98,000 Americans were dying each year of medical errors. Instead of the number of medical errors decreasing, it nearly doubled.
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*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
September 28th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
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I have blogged extensively about why standard of care is an irresponsible measure of the threshold for determining negligence in medical care. Most recently, I blogged about it
here and
here. Imagine for a moment what capitalism would be like if your investment adviser was sued every time your investment value went down. Imagine what life would be like if they risked civil liability every time a bad outcome occurred. What if no laws were broken? What if an after the fact determination of negligence was based on a bad outcome?
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*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*
September 28th, 2009 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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A thoughtful and (dare I say it) balanced look at medical malpractice in today’s NYT:
Malpractice System Breeds More Waste in Medicine – NYTimes.com
The debate over medical malpractice can often seem theological. On one side are those conservatives and doctors who have no doubt that frivolous lawsuits and Democratic politicians beholden to trial lawyers are the reasons American health care is so expensive. On the other side are those liberals who see malpractice reform as another Republican conspiracy to shift attention from the real problem. […]
The direct costs of malpractice lawsuits — jury awards, settlements and the like — are such a minuscule part of health spending that they barely merit discussion, economists say. But that doesn’t mean the malpractice system is working.
The fear of lawsuits among doctors does seem to lead to a noticeable amount of wasteful treatment. Amitabh Chandra — a Harvard economist whose research is cited by both the American Medical Association and the trial lawyers’ association — says $60 billion a year, or about 3 percent of overall medical spending, is a reasonable upper-end estimate. If a new policy could eliminate close to that much waste without causing other problems, it would be a no-brainer.
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*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
