New guidelines that provide a major change for preventing heart attacks and strokes are being debated in the medical community, according to a recent article in The Columbus Dispatch. The guidelines, drafted by heart experts for the American Heart Association and the...
Month: November 2013
Many Ohio Nursing Homes Worst-Rated in Country
Fifteen nursing homes throughout Northeast Ohio are among the worst-rated facilities in the nation and show no signs of improving, according to an USA Today analysis of ratings given by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The ratings take into...
Doctors’ Biggest Mistake? Preventable Diagnosis Errors
Diagnosis errors, the most common form of medical mistakes, lead to permanent damage or death for as many as 160,000 patients each year, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Healthcare providers are turning to a number of innovative strategies...
FDA Plans to Halt Painkiller Abuse
With abuse of painkillers steadily on the rise, the Food and Drug Administration has recommended tighter controls on how doctors prescribe these drugs, according to The New York Times. A debate over whether painkillers that contain the narcotic hydrocodone should be...
Should Live Donors Be Paid for their Organs?
A debate over whether paying living kidney donors is practical or ethical is brewing in the medical community as the number of donors continues to steadily decline. More than 98,000 people are currently waiting for kidneys in the U.S. alone, according to the...
Commercial Truckers’ Risky Behaviors Punished
Serious safety violations have forced the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to reprimand and shut down several commercial truckers recently, according to Overdrive. The Massachusetts owner of Korca Enterprises, Inc. paid a FMCSA investigator $1,000...
Ohio Nursing Home Surveillance in Works
A new piece of legislation is aiming to give Ohio nursing home patients the explicit right to set up hidden monitoring devices in their rooms in order to catch staff in the acts of abuse or neglect. Current state law is not clear on whether it is legal for...
FDA Shortens Drug Approval Time, Raises Questions
As the Food and Drug Administration expedites reviews, many safety questions are left unanswered about new drugs even after they are approved, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In an examination of 20 new drugs approved by the...
New Doctors Lack Bedside Manner
Doctors in their first year out of medical school are unlikely to display communications skills that can improve a patient's recovery and lead to greater patient satisfaction, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University. Observers recorded the actions...