South Carolina Activity (48 items)
South Carolina dialysis patient, Tony Simmons, speaks out against the poor conditions he's observed and errors he's experienced, at a SC dialysis clinic. 19 percent of SC clinics had a "worse than expected" mortality rate, appearing more frequently than in neighboring states.
South Carolina hospitals are scheduled to start rolling out operating room surgical safety checklists, aimed at reducing the number of surgical errors that occur every year, according to a Greenville Online news report.
The new health care reform law supports hospital infection reporting efforts in South Carolina.
Article by Marshall Allen after attending Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project 2010 summit.
South Carolina hospice doc never met a patient who wasn't terminal, yet profitable
The pharmaceutical industry funneled nearly $3 million to South Carolina doctors in 18 months, based on data compiled by ProPublica.
A new SC law requires county coroners or medical examiners to be notified if a patient dies within 24 hours after being admitted to a hospital and within 24 hours following an invasive surgical procedure.
"A recent study found 25 percent more C. diff than MRSA in 28 community hospitals in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia."
"While Hilton Head staff worked to control infection rates in 2009, Beaufort Memorial Hospital saw its rates decrease or remain at zero in five of six reported procedures." Read more here.
The following films from Transparent Learning are the first in a series of educational stories that feature patient safety advocates including Helen Haskell, Rosemary Gibson and Dr. Lucian Leape.
This survey was created for patients who have experienced medical harm, their loved ones and their advocates. This survey was created by the Empowered Patient Coalition and we have jointly published this survey on our websites. This survey is designed to answer questions that are important to patients. This is a way for patients to report their experience as they have lived it, and to know that their report will be counted.The Empowered Patient Coalition will be entering the events annonymously on a map so you can see your error and others in your state by clciking on the map.
"I was stunned to read in the March issue of Consumer Reports that Hilton Head Hospital has the very worst record in South Carolina for so-called "central line" infections. "
Advocates say most cases preventable; state legislation in committee
Eli Lilly & Co. paid doctors in South Carolina for participating in a speakers’ program in exchange for prescribing the antipsychotic Zyprexa.
The affected staff have since returned to work after being treated with antibiotics and testing negative for Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. Surgical-site infections in five out of 1,500 patients in July and August prompted the hospital to test 68 operating room staffers for staph, said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Shapiro.
SC state health department’s survey of infection rates shows scores of hospitals in the state.
South Carolina licensing boards disciplined 170 doctors and nurses for drug problems in the past year, records show, with addiction running higher among health-care professionals than the general population, according to the director of a program that treats medical workers.
Six more months worth of data cataloging hospital- associated infections in South Carolina was made public Monday.
Rapid test will enable faster treatment, containment of resistant staph germ
A $21 million grant coming to South Carolina aims to improve patient care and prevent unnecessary hospital deaths.
A House subcommittee has approved a Senate-passed bill requiring hospitals to publicly report data on patient infections
Users of WhyNotTheBest.org can now search for and compare data for nearly 1,000 hospitals on the incidence of central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs)—one of the most lethal hospital-acquired complications. The data show wide variation in CLABSI incidence, in spite of strong evidence on how to prevent them. The updated data is made possible through a partnership among The Commonwealth Fund, The Leapfrog Group, and Consumers Union.
Plans about what the states are supposed to be doing to eliminate hospital acquired infections.
Link to map that highlights antimicrobial resistance issues at the state level.
Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME) is a South Carolina-based group that works with medical error victims, healthcare professionals, and legislators to promote its mission of providing support to victims of medical harm; educating policymakers and the public about patient safety issues; and advocating for improvements in healthcare policy. Areas in which MAME has been active include medical education reform, hospital infection reporting, in-hospital patient support systems, and disclosure of medical error.
Contact: Helen Haskell mamemoms@gmail.com
http://www.mamemomsonline.org/Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion on this deadly and costly infectious problem we have in SC. I'm a retired disabled veteran who is receiving treatment in a VA Medical Center. It seems like everytime I go there I end up leaving with an infection or virus of some sort. The last time I went there I thought I was having a heart attack. The ER Doc on call, which was one I believe was making her rounds to all the various emergency patients. When it had come to me finally being seen by her I know and behold she was sicker than a dog and here she was seeing all us ER patients. I wanted to hurry up and get out of there. This is so unprofessional and so risky. To make a long story short I knew I did have a heart attack, but she wasn't quite sure. I really don't take the time they need to take in treating us patients effectively. I felt so degraded going there and really hate having to use the facility where it come to having to go to the ER. This doc had been hacking all over me while she was checking my breathing with her stethoscope. I'm quite sure that is where I've picked up the many viruses that I've had. I'm cannot take any type of flu shot or H1NI shot due to autoimmune disease and allergies to egg yolks, I'm allergic to antihistamines so have to be placed on antibiotics. So far this year I have had three serious infections where the doctor has never called me back to let me know what it was. You really have to be careful taking meds also. I've had so many allergic reactions that I've ended up in the ER because the docs didn't take the time to do research on what medications I had already been on. I want people to know that they really need to read the medical medication inserts and educate themselves on drug interactions etc., because the doctors that I've known don't. I really feel that they are either understaffed, don't care and for the most part feel as if they should be investigated for how they treat people such as myself who gave up 21 years of their life to protect our country. I have one surgeon who claims that he's fixed my bunions thru surgery, but in actuality he's made both my feet worse. I have very painful feet all the time. There has been only one doctor that has helped me improve drastically with all my medical problems and that is an acupuncture/chiropractic/massage chinese doctor that I see every week, but that is going to end soon, which makes me really unhappy because he has treated the body and doesn't prescribe medication to me to mask the pain like these other doctors that I truly don't really care! I pray that alternative medicine will be a good turning point for our healthcare system in the future. There are no side affects, drug dependency, etc. By the way my mother died in a hospital from the many viruses that have been spoken of due to hospitalization. My advice for anyone going to a treatment facility: wear plastic gloves, use purell, wash your hands and don't touch anything even a magazine while your there. People that have been ill have spread there germs all over the chairs, magazines, bathrooms, examining tables etc. Good luck and I pray that you all will learn from my terrible experiences. By the way, watch what you eat most meats are either gassed to last longer and give you the impression that they are fresh. The poultry on the other hand were tested and they contain at least two types of bacteria on them not to mention all the hormones and antibiotics that are pumped into them so that they will be fattened. Please do as much reading and try to go organic if you must! Good luck readers, my prayers are with you!
Adriano has contacted an infection,but from what?
If one can report errors without fear more people can learn how to avoid these errors.
More than 290,000 surgical site infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year. Patients who acquire infections from surgery spend, on average, an additional 6.5 days in the hospital, are five times more likely to be readmitted after discharge, and twice as likely to die.
Surgery patients are at risk for infection because surgical incisions create a pathway for germs to enter the body. Maintaining a sterile environment in the operating room is therefore critical to protect patients from being contaminated with bacteria, which can lead to infection.
How well is your hospital, state and the nation as a whole are performing on three key practices that help prevent infections during surgery? Find out here »
In 2001 I contracted four infections during a partial hysterectomy resulting in flesh-eating bacteria. I went into septic shock, was resuscitated three times, went into multiple organ failure, was placed on life support, spent three days in a coma and nine days in critical care...
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Helen Haskell, founder of Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME), was another key advocate for the Stop Hospital Infection Campaign in South Carolina where she worked with a coalition of other activists (individuals with hospital infection experiences) and organizations (John Ruoff, SC Fair Share; Theresa Arnold, SC AARP; and other) to get the hospital infection public disclosure bill passed into law.
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Lisa Toolen's son, Jimmy, was an active and healthy 15-year old who had out-patient knee surgery in 2005. They never imagined that it could turn into such a life changing event for her family. But that was before he developed a debilitating infection from his surgery that threatened his life and ultimately may leave him permanently disabled...
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