Blog & Articles

[6 MIN READ]

Physicians, nurses and other “healers” have had special relationships with patients for centuries. This unique bond between those who provide medical treatment and those who receive their care is currently being endangered by a massive and impersonal healthcare delivery system that is becoming more dependent on automation and technology with each passing year. The good news is that patient attitudes, impressions, and subsequent compliance with treatment plans can be positively influenced when healthcare professionals improve their communication skills with their patients.

Studies show that there is a clear relationship between high patient satisfaction and healthcare organizations that provide safe, quality care. A report by Health Grades (May 2012) noted that hospitals that were ranked (by patients) in the top percentages for nursing and physician communication had lower rates of adverse patient safety events. For example, bed sores occurred approximately 46% more frequently in hospitals that patients had ranked in the lowest 10% for provider communication.

[4 MIN READ]

ACOG has issued a practice advisory regarding the recent measles outbreak.

It is hard to fathom that a disease once considered eradicated is now in a state of progression across the United States. To date, there are 764 reported cases across 23 states; this number has increased by 60 cases from the previous week as reported by the CDC. No state is immune, and nationwide advancement is probable.

[9 MIN READ]

I certainly don’t pretend to have the answer to the question of how to eliminate the opioid epidemic. There are legislative, regulatory and policy issues far greater than any one of us, but what can the medical community do? This was the call to action by Stephen Stack, President of the AMA, who also happens to be an emergency physician. Dr. Stack clearly labels this as an epidemic and says we have to do something.

[12 MIN READ]

For the past two decades, the U.S. has experienced alarming rates of opioid use, misuse, abuse, and overdose deaths, and we are now ground zero for the opioid epidemic. This epidemic is rife with risks for patients, practitioners, insurers, healthcare organizations, communities, and our entire society. This is the first article in a three-part series in which we’ll explore the opioid epidemic, liability trends related to opioid prescribing, and strategies to reduce harm from opioid prescribing and abuse.

In 2014, there were 885 million physician office visits. Over half of these visits occurred in primary care –family medicine, internal, medicine, pediatrics and others – but there are still hundreds of millions of visits to medical and surgical specialists as well.

Based on information available from journal publications and claims data, we assembled this list of the top ten risk and safety issues pertinent to ambulatory care settings. While this list is not exhaustive, it represents the majority of errors and pitfalls in ambulatory patient safety.

Whether we like it or not, the future of medicine is geriatrics. As the demographics in the United States change in the next 50 years, it is predicted that practitioners will find themselves providing care to a much larger group of elderly patients. For example, the 2014 census data showed that 14.5% of the U.S. population was 65 years of age or older. By 2040, it is estimated that this age group will grow to comprise 22% of the population. People are actually living long enough to form a subgroup of elderly patients who are over 85 years old – the “super-elderly.” This crowd of the super elderly grew three to four times faster than the general population between 1990 and 2010.

Acute abdominal pain presents a significant challenge to all healthcare professionals who care for geriatric patients. The signs and symptoms may be atypical, the differential diagnosis is vast, the workup is time-consuming, and the stakes are high. It is estimated that of all elderly patients who present to the emergency department with abdominal pain, as many as 50% will require admission and 30%-40% will require surgery.

The chief complaint of chest pain is common among patients presenting to the office, clinic, urgent care or emergency department. While heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., medical error is the third leading cause. Furthermore, missed or delayed diagnoses are responsible for 57% of malpractice claims in emergency medicine, according to a 2007-2013 closed claims analysis from The Doctors Company.

This infographic outlines common errors in chest pain diagnosis that can lead to an adverse event. Download as a PDF.

There are approximately 21 million living U.S. military veterans, and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest health care system in the country. Despite its size, the VHA is overwhelmed by the need to provide healthcare to the huge number of eligible veterans.

As a consequence of this high demand for care, Congress enacted the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, which allows veterans to seek government-funded care in the private sector under certain circumstances. This act may cause an influx of veterans into private physician practices.

A chief complaint of pain is one of the most common encountered by practitioners in any specialty. The pain may be acute or chronic. It may be located in the abdomen, chest, head or any other body part. It may be spontaneous in onset or may be due to an injury. It can range from minimal discomfort to a 15 on the pain scale of 1 to 10. The seriousness of the pain may vary from life-threatening to embarrassingly minor.The patient’s description of pain may be pinpointed and exact or agonizingly vague. Regardless of its characteristics, pain is what brings patients to healthcare providers by the millions every year.