http://www.safepatientproject.org/ The Safe Patient Project is a Consumers Union campaign focused on eliminating medical harm, improving FDA oversight of prescription drugs and promoting disclosure laws that give information to consumers about health care safety and quality. en Copyright 2012 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:31:21 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss ProPublica article on death investigation in America. ProPublica and PBS "Frontline" have identified more than three-dozen cases in which the alleged neglect, abuse or even murder of seniors eluded authorities. But for the intervention of whistleblowers, concerned relatives and others, the truth about these deaths might never have come to light.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/gone_without_a_case_suspicious.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/gone_without_a_case_suspicious.html News Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:31:21 -0600 Second story in Marshall Allen's latest investigation for ProPublica on the state of hospital autopsies in America. It is about the implications of performing so few autopsies in hospitals. Decades ago, about half the people who died in the hospital were autopsied. Today, the average is five percent, but it's close to zero in many hospitals in the country.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/without_autopsies_hospitals_bu.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/without_autopsies_hospitals_bu.html News Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:49:07 -0600 First story in Marshall Allen's latest investigation for ProPublica on the state of hospital autopsies in America. It is a tragic tale of a woman whose husband died unexpectedly after being admitted to a hospital with kidney stones.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/_why_cant_linda_carswell_get_h.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/_why_cant_linda_carswell_get_h.html News Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:43:33 -0600 Alan Bavley reports on the secrecy of the National Practitioner Data Bank and mentions Consumers Union's poll results that found nearly nine in 10 people said the public should have full access to the database.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/_secrecy_protects_doctors_with.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/_secrecy_protects_doctors_with.html News Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:04:04 -0600 The number of medical error reports in Indiana hit an all time high in 2010, according to data collected by the Indiana Department of Health. The most common types of errors reported were pressure ulcers followed by foreign objects left in surgery patients.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/indiana_medical_errors_hit_fiv.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/indiana_medical_errors_hit_fiv.html News Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:41:58 -0600 The FDA warned marketing company and clinics that they're in violation of federal law by promoting the Lap-Band, a weight loss device that has been implanted in thousands of patients, through "false or misleading" advertising.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/its_about_time_that_fda_took_a.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/its_about_time_that_fda_took_a.html News Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:01:13 -0600 New bipartisan bill would require postmarket surveillance of medical devices approved through 510(k), the FDA's fast track approval process that requires no testing on humans and only needs to be similar to a device already on the market.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/bill_would_require_more_monito.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/bill_would_require_more_monito.html News Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:55:21 -0600 The CT Department of Public Health releases its first hospital specific adverse event report.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/connecticut_adverse_event_repo_1.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/connecticut_adverse_event_repo_1.html Document (External) Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:25:25 -0600 http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/connecticut_adverse_event_repo.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/connecticut_adverse_event_repo.html State Disclosure Report Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:17:07 -0600 Medtronic Inc., the world?s largest maker of medical devices, has agreed to pay $23.5 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to doctors to implant its pacemakers and defibrillators, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/medical_devices_maker_medtroni.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/medical_devices_maker_medtroni.html News Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:26:27 -0600 An analysis of federal safety reports by the Globe shows that at least 119 people died nationwide between 2005 and May 2011 because of such alarm-related problems. And a separate review by the US Food and Drug Administration uncovered about 800 alarm-related adverse events involving ventilator patients in 2010 alone. Many were deemed ?preventable?? or due to ?human error.?? An unknown number resulted in injuries or deaths.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/ventilator_errors_are_linked_t.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/ventilator_errors_are_linked_t.html News Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:49:53 -0600 The California Department of Public Health announced it was imposing $850,000 in fines on 14 hospitals for medical errors that caused or were likely to cause serious patient injury or death.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/public_health_department_fines.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/public_health_department_fines.html News Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:33:58 -0600 Another 14 California hospitals have been ordered to pay fines totaling $850,000 in the latest round of medical errors involving immediate jeopardy to patients, state health officials said last week.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/immediate_jeopardy_14_ca_hospi.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/immediate_jeopardy_14_ca_hospi.html News Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:21:18 -0600 3 former medical device executives receive prison sentences for their role in an illegal test of a bone-cement product

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/analysis_court_tests_liability.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/analysis_court_tests_liability.html News Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:13:34 -0600 As of 2013, a national physician payment database created under the Affordable Care Act will make such information available to all.

]]> http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/an_ms_patient_loses_trust_when.html http://www.safepatientproject.org/2011/12/an_ms_patient_loses_trust_when.html News Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:23:47 -0600