It is estimated that 12 percent of patients will experience an adverse event in a hospital, with half of those occurring while in surgery. Adverse events include leaving an object in a patient, infections that could have been avoided or the death of a patient....
Dedicated To Protecting What Matters Most
Month: September 2015
Failing to diagnose leptospirosis
Many Oregon residents may not be familiar with leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease that is caused by a bacteria that can found in rat urine. However, those who live in urban areas or areas that have high numbers of rats and other carriers should be aware that the...
Cancer patients with information have better outcomes
Oregon patients who have been diagnosed with cancer may have better outcomes if they are given detailed information about their condition. According to a British study of 10,000 cancer patients, people with more knowledge about the specific type of cancer that they...
The importance of prostate cancer screening
Doctors recommend prostate cancer screening for all men between the ages of 40 and 75, and Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September is designed to remind people of the importance of this procedure. Medical studies have shown that black men are more likely to be...
The prevalence of wrong diagnoses examined
Oregon residents may be interested to learn that the National Academy of Medicine has been working on a new study that examines misdiagnosis as a serious cause of medical error that harms patients. In one prominent case from 2014, a Liberian man in Texas was given...
New group aims to lower diagnosis error rate
Many Oregon residents suffer complications due to physicians' misdiagnoses yearly, and one study conducted in 2014 indicated that approximately 5 percent of all diagnoses issued annually across the country are erroneous. The problem has been difficult to overcome in...
Diagnosing pneumonia leads to proper treatment
As many Oregon residents may know, pneumonia may initially present as an upper respiratory infection. However, unlike such an infection, the symptoms may worsen. Health care professionals use a series of diagnostic tests to determine whether pneumonia is present....
Installing cameras into operating rooms
Oregon residents may be interested in learning more about the push for implementing cameras into operating rooms to better document surgical procedures. Trailing only cancer and heart disease, medical errors is the third-leading cause of death in the country, killing...