The HealthGrades Guide to America’s Hospitals and Doctors was released last month with important information for consumers about the quality of virtually every hospital in the country. The reference guide also devotes several chapters to getting the best medical care, from finding the best doctor and hospital to protecting yourself from medical errors.
Medical errors […]

An estimated 1.7 million patients acquire an infection while hospitalized and a startling 99,000 patients die from hospital-acquired infections each year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This is not a new problem for the medical community, which has been slow to take action. What […]

A Boca Raton, Fla. cheerleader has died from anesthesia complications during breast surgery at her doctor’s office. With an increasing number of doctors performing surgery in their offices instead of hospitals, researchers have found a higher risk of death and complications in offices compared with other facilities – and cosmetic procedures cause the most […]

The Orlando Sentinel recently reported on a medical malpractice claim against the Veteran’s Administration clinic in Daytona Beach for missing a cancerous tumor on a veteran’s chest x-ray in 2005. When the veteran visited a non-VA doctor in 2006, a follow-up x-ray revealed the large cancerous tumor which was removed along with a large […]

Medicare plans to hit error-prone hospitals where it hurts: in the pocketbook, according to the Associated Press. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
“Beginning on October 1, Medicare no longer will pay the added costs for eight preventable hospital errors, including catheter-caused urinary tract infections, injuries from falls, and leaving […]

Unidentified damage from a past traumatic brain injury could be the unlikely source of problems ranging from poor memory and learning difficulties to behavioral changes such as homelessness and alcoholism, according to new research reported in The Wall Street Journal. New York’s Mt. Sinai School of Medicine has found that brain injury therapy often […]