Ensuring the health and safety of patients often involves monitoring those patients who are in need of continuous care. Failure to monitor patients can have catastrophic consequences, as a recent lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs claims.A Navy...
When a doctor hands a patient off to another doctor, the transfer of care can too often lead to preventable errors. The result can be patient injuries and medical malpractice litigation, says the author of a recent Medscape article exploring the beginnings and ends of...
The nine most terrifying words in the English language, it has been said, are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Those words rang true again while we read recently that a number of people in the nation's capital were given bad medical information about...
No one looks forward to surgery, but most San Antonio residents expect the best and hope that the operation will result in improved health.Unfortunately, surgery can have the opposite effect. Far too often, surgical errors occur, leaving patients with more medical...
Medication errors are a serious problem at medical facilities across the United States, and VA hospitals are no exception.Consider the case of a veteran who died at a VA hospital less than a week after retiring from the Army.On the day of the death, a VA doctor...
Many people have made the point, but we are going to repeat it here: when a negligent doctor or hospital is ordered to pay a large amount to a victim of medical malpractice, it is because the damage is extensive. That is the case in a lawsuit recently decided by a...
Depending on the hospital, veterans often have to make appointments at VA facilities months in advance. That kind of waiting can be bad for your health, especially if you're living with a life-threatening condition and you don't know it yet. It's no secret that VA...
According to statistics, the eighth most common surgery in the U.S. is gallbladder removal. So it's unlikely that a 65-year-old veteran of the Viet Nam war was overly worried when he entered a Veterans Affairs medical center for the common procedure.Two weeks after he...
Whether you are a patient at a civilian hospital or a military hospital, you have a right to know about the risks associated with specific medical procedures. You also have a right to know who will be performing the procedure. Likewise, civilian and military doctors...
We have heard it from members of the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, the media and from the hospital industry and doctor lobby: the rise in medical malpractice claims is driving the cost of health care up and up. The reality, though, is something else entirely, as...
