Emma Bennet is 10 years old and lives in Houston, a suburb of Cypress. Recently, a video of her went viral, resulting in over 10 million views and 100,000 Facebook shares. Click here to find out why.
Category Archives: Article
Uncovering Medical Errors
According to a recent study done by researchers at John Hopkins University, the number of inpatient deaths from medical errors have increased. With 251,000 error-based inpatient deaths occurring each year in the US, only heart disease and cancer cause more fatalities.
It is time to implement more aggressive measures to combat this epidemic of medical errors, even a measure that undoubtedly would not sit well with doctors, hospitals and, most certainly, their liability insurance carriers. But it is a measure that the health care industry should embrace if its No. 1 priority truly is patient safety. What is this measure? Doing away with keeping secret from the public the findings of hospital peer review committees.
Click here to read the full article.
Will Any Patient Advisor Do?
In her blog post, Alies Maybee explores whether patient advisors are interchangeable entities – not unlike a cog in a wheel. Can patient advisors move from role to role and be seamlessly substituted for one another? Are patient advisors swappable? A portion of what she quickly discovers is found below.
As I’ve come to know some of my fellow advisors, I have concluded that in terms of skills, attributes and experience related to the business of advising, we are not all the same.
As advisors, we sometimes assess our involvement and our experience of a group differently. I venture to suggest this is in part because we are different types of advisors. Sometimes it’s like we weren’t all at the same party.
Our healthcare partners don’t often see our experience of involvement in the same way we do. Not only that, I sense they may make an assumption that all advisors experience the involvement in the same way.
My hope is that understanding the different types of advisors will bring a new level of clarity to how we choose to interact and assess those interactions.
Click here to continue reading.
Does morphine make chronic nerve pain worse?
When a person takes a painkiller, the assumption is that the pain will decrease in intensity. This is particularly true when the medicine taken is morphine. However, a recent study indicates that morphine may actually make chronic nerve pain worse. Why might this be the case? According to Dr. Peter Grace, an Australian neuroscientist at the University of Colorado and co-author of the study, “It seems morphine works quite well initially, but as the immune system ramps up, this starts to oppose the pain-relieving properties of morphine and morphine starts to induce pain in its own right.” Click here to read more.
Can hospitals stays lead to delirium?
It is not uncommon for people admitted to a hospital to experience confusion and anxiety. However, in some situations, this develops into delirium. This is especially true for the elderly population. What is delirium? What causes it? What can be done to decrease the likelihood of its occurrence?
In a recent article published in the Globe and Mail, these questions were addressed. If you have not had the opportunity to read, “How a disorienting hospital visit can lead to delirium,” you may wish to do so. Among other things, it will provide some insight into what can happen when someone you know is admitted to the hospital and how your presence can make a difference.
Drug-free protocol for treating chronic pain?
Chronic pain is one of the most taxing health problems facing individuals. Although the pain can be problematic in and of itself, it can be accompanied by depression, loss of livelihood and independence and/or addiction to prescription pain killers.
Joan Broderick, senior behavioral scientist and associate director of the Center for Self-Report Science at USC Dornsife’s Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR), suggests an alternative to drug use. Click here to discover what it is.
‘Unacceptable failures’ in end-of-life care at nights and weekends
According to a recent study, the end-of-life care provided at nights and weekends in the United Kingdom is less than satisfactory. One reason for this is the inadequate number of palliative care specialists available. “There are nowhere near enough palliative care doctors and nurses to provide a 24/7 service across the whole of the UK – we only have 1 palliative care consultant and 5 palliative care nurses per 1000 beds” (http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwxsTMpio).
Is this situation unique to the UK or does it occur elsewhere as well? What is palliative care like where you reside?
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words?
Have you ever found yourself at a medical appointment trying desperately to explain to your physician what and how you are feeling? Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, nothing you are saying is coming out right and any utterances you make are not conveying the message you want. Rather than struggling to verbalize your thoughts, why not draw them instead? This idea is explored in Damien Pollard’s article Magic Eyes.
Who is more likely to be overprescribed drugs?
If you are a woman and a senior, there is a potential that you have been, will be or are taking pills that are not required. According to a new study out of University of British Columbia, “nearly one in three women in this province over age 65 received inappropriate prescription medicines in 2013, compared to one in four men, who received similar prescriptions.” Why are more women being overprescribed medicine than men? What is the reason for this discrepancy? Why are senior woman, or indeed anyone, being overprescribed medication? These and other related questions are addressed here
Primary Health Care in Canada – Indicator Results
Released in April 2016, this free CIHI document may be of interest to you. “Based on the 2012 Pan-Canadian Primary Health Care Indicator Update Report, this chartbook profiles the results from a selected group of primary health care (PHC) indicators, using a range of data sources, with the aim of providing an integrated view of PHC information in Canada.” Download the document here
