New research offers some much-need recommendations on how to curb MRSA infections among nursing home residents. As it turns out, the activities that pose the greatest risk of infection aren't always what you might think they'd be.
Patient Safety and Ethics
California is taking another run at requiring doctors to check a patient’s prescription history before prescribing potentially addictive drugs, with legislation passing the state senate yesterday. But will California legislators make the same kinds of compromises with providers that Oklahoma did?
Oklahoma is one of only a handful of states that require physicians to check a patient’s prescription history before prescribing potentially addictive drugs. How did Oklahoma enact this requirement when so many other states, such as California, have tried and failed?
In April, the governor of Oklahoma signed a bill that requires doctors to check a state-run database of patients and prescriptions before writing a new prescription for addictive medications. That makes the state a national leader in efforts to track such prescriptions and curtail abuse.
Reporter Tom Corwin of The Augusta Chronicle was shocked to learn of 82 unexpected deaths in 2013 among disabled patients receiving care in community placements in Georgia. The discovery launched him on an extended data-driven investigation. Here he shares lessons from the series.
Organ transplants are increasing at a faster rate than the population in the U.S., but not all transplant programs are created equal. Knowing where to find the relevant data can help you dig deeper and explore regional variations in wait times and success rates.
The University of Minnesota is replacing the chairman of its psychiatry department following two scathing reviews of its safety protocols in research involving human subjects and its recruitment of a troubled man who later died by suicide in a schizophrenia drug trial.
When reporting on hospitals, it pays to download and read the hospital’s Joint Commission report. These reports are an important first step in understanding the basic outlines of how a hospital is performing relative to others.
Dan Markingson suffered from schizophrenia and killed himself in May 2004 while taking part in a clinical trial for an antipsychotic drug made by AstraZeneca. The evolving case continues to highlight problems of research oversight at the university and state levels.
Are you making good use of hospital and nursing home inspection records in your reporting? If not, a few key database resources can help get you started. A review of several years can show patterns of medication errors, nursing lapses, or may highlight a horrific case.