We have become a country of phone-addicted people. And nowhere is this more true – and more dangerous – than on our nation’s roads. Some estimates place the amount of people driving while on their cell phones as high as 80 percent.
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which is when Zendrive released its 2019 research (“Public Enemy No. 1”) on distracted driving. This is the third consecutive year that the data tech and mobile app company has studied distracted drivers, and it reports that distracted driving continues to worsen year after year.
The study coins ...
Twenty years ago, a landmark report (“To Err is Human”) found that as many 98,000 people die from medical errors in this country every year. And just three years ago, another study said that only heart disease and cancer caused more deaths in the United States than preventable medical mistakes.
According to that more recent Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study (“Medical Error—the Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.”), more than 250,000 people die annually from medical errors.
What is a Medical Error?
That study defines a medical error to include:
· A mistake ...
It’s one step forward and likely one step back in terms of preventing catastrophic truck crashes in this country.
On December 17, the electronic logging device mandate goes into full effect. On that day, all appropriate commercial truckers must record their hours of service – time spent on the road – in computerized devices.
How does this help prevent fatal commercial truck accidents? Electronic logging devices should do a better job keeping dangerously tired truck drivers off the road than the previous process.
Truckers Avoiding Driving Hours Regulations
Prior to the ELD ...
Misdiagnosis is a common but serious medical mistake. According to new research, misreading of CT scans – one variety of patient misdiagnosis - is a leading cause of medical errors that harm patients.
The Doctors Company, a medical malpractice insurance provider, in early December released the findings of its study into radiology medical malpractice claims (“Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Closed Claims Study”). It reviewed nearly 600 medical malpractice lawsuits against radiologists that closed between 2013 and 2018.
The study examined medical malpractice ...