Because of the coronavirus, elective surgeries in many St. Louis hospitals are on hold. But some surgeries can’t wait. What are the necessary precautions to take for safe surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic? Four national medical groups recently announced a plan to avoid serious errors and patient harm during or following surgery.
The plan is an updated guide published previously this year by these four groups:
· American College of Surgeons
· American Society of Anesthesiologists
· Association of periOperative Registered Nurses
· American Hospital Association
With the ...
December is a month of holiday-related parties and festive gatherings, with alcohol consumption a common trait. That is why for almost 40 years December has been deemed “National Impaired Driving Prevention Month." This year’s holiday celebrations may be muted because of COVID-19. But that does not in any way diminish the very real and present danger of drunk driving and drivers under the influence of drugs.
In June the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its most recent report on fatal drunk-driving crashes in Missouri and the other 49 states. Some of the ...
Hospital intensive care units provide the best, most sophisticated care for patients enduring the most serious medical conditions. But a respected medical organization recently issued warnings about dangerous preventable complications certain ICU patients may needlessly suffer.
Hospital ICUs have been in demand most of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients suffering the most dire threats from the coronavirus are stretching thin ICU beds and resources in St. Louis, in Missouri, and all across the United States.
But in general, the patients most likely to require ICU ...
The findings of a fatal car crash federal investigation followed by new research warns of a threat that will certainly only grow more widespread in the future: distracted drivers relying too heavily on technology. In February of this year the National Transportation Safety Board announced the findings of its investigation into a 2018 California car crash that killed one person. The person who died was the driver of a car on “autopilot.” The car crashed into a concrete median barrier, killing the driver.
Causes of Fatal Car Accident
The NTSB’s investigation determined there ...
Dangerous medical errors are estimated to be responsible for the death of 250,000 U.S. patients every year. Medication errors represent a common but often serious type of preventable medical error. A new survey shows that almost a third of medical professionals have witnessed one particular type of medication error.
There are several types of medication errors, including:
· Wrong dose
· Medication given to the wrong patient
· Wrong delivery of correct medication
The new survey has to do a group of medications that are delivered by injection – typically syringes and IVs.
The ...
The federal government’s new tool to keep truck drivers on drugs off the road may not be working so well. It took an act of Congress but it finally happened: there now is a way to track commercial truckers who have driven drunk or high on illegal drugs. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rolled out its Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse in January 2020. This is a database that trucking companies and law enforcement can access to see if a trucker has had any drunk or drugged-driving violations.
Fatigued Truck Drivers
Semi-truck drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs pose ...
When hospital administrators and safety officials search for bacteria that cause dangerous hospital-acquired infections, they should be sure to look down around their feet. Hospital-acquired infections are dangerous, often fatal, medical errors. It is classified as a medical error since the patient is admitted to the hospital infection free, only to suffer from it due to hospital care.
Types of Hospital-Acquired Infections
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights these common four types of HAIs:
· Central line-associated bloodstream infection – kills ...
Per the federal government’s most recent final statistics, 5,000 people were killed in the United States in commercial truck crashes in 2018. A preliminary accounting of 2019 fatal motor vehicle accidents has this number repeating last year. Why do serious truck crashes and fatal truck accidents continue to hold steady, while total fatal motor vehicle crashes have fallen in recent years? A report issued over the summer provides some insights.
Driver Errors and Big-Rig Crashes
The 2006 federal research, “Large Truck Crash Causation Study,” found driver error the leading ...
Leaving a surgical tool or some other object in the patient following an operation is a serious surgical error that should never happen. But it happens more often than you probably think.
Medical mistakes are a serious health risk and a leading cause of death in the United States by some estimates. Surgical errors are one type of these preventable medical “never events” – labeled as such because they are so serious they should never happen to a patient.
Serious Surgical Mistakes
Unfortunately, retained surgical instruments or RSIs, represent one example of serious mistakes made ...
Safety technology in passenger cars and SUVs has been widely adopted and expanded in recent years. But its effectiveness may ultimately rely on the particular driver using it.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a not-for-profit organization focused on reducing fatal traffic crashes, has this year alone published the findings of three studies looking into the relationship between drivers and advanced safety technology.
Drivers Who Don’t Understand Computerized Technology
The first, released in June, focused on how the driver’s knowledge and understanding of the ...
RSS Feed