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Modern healthcare employs many types of invasive devices and procedures to treat patients and to help them recover. But things don’t always go as planned, and these devices and procedures can lead to infections. These healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) may include central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Infections may also…

Medical Malpractice is among the top three leading causes of death in the U.S. – just after heart disease and cancer. Each year, an estimated 440,000 people lose their life from preventable medical mistakes. That’s a pretty frightening statistic that makes widespread knowledge of medical malpractice essential to patient safety. Let’s start with the…

Anticipating the birth of a child is a very exciting time, but it can also be nerve-racking for parents. You want to ensure the safety of your child, but a lot of things can go wrong. Many parents often worry about health complications that could arise with their newborn, like birth defects or birth injuries; however…

We recently told you about a surgical “black box” that could help reduce surgical errors – that is, if doctors and hospitals decide to implement it. But one state lawmaker isn’t willing to wait for hospitals to make the decision. She wants patients to be able to decide. Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) introduced a…

Researchers in Canada are working on a surgical “black box” – like the ones placed in airplanes – that would record surgeons’ movements and identify surgical errors. Inside the operating room, video cameras would track every movement while a small computer-like device analyzes the recordings, identifies mistakes, and provides instant feedback to surgeons as…

A study published in the journal, BMJ Quality & Safety, shows that approximately 12 million adults in the U.S. are misdiagnosed every year – that’s at least 1 in 20 adults annually! With the frequency of diagnostic errors, it could happen to anyone. That’s why we’re sharing 5 commonly misdiagnosed conditions: 1.) Cancer The…

Every year millions of people enter the hospital to seek help, but thousands end up getting a hospital-acquired infection, also known as healthcare-associated infection or HAI. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that an estimated 722,000 patients end up with a HAIs every year. Of those, about 75,000 hospital patients die…

A pulmonary embolism is a sudden blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries in your lungs. It is usually caused by a blood clot in the leg called deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The clot breaks loose and travels through the bloodstream to the lungs. Since pulmonary embolism almost always occurs in conjunction with deep…

According to ABCNews.com, an estimated 1.3 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year. The person diagnosing cancer is usually a pathologist who analyzes patient’s tissue in a lab, but has never met the patient in person. When researchers at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore reviewed tissue samples from 6,000 cancer patients across…

In a normal pregnancy, your ovary releases an egg into your fallopian tube. If the egg meets a sperm, the fertilized egg moves into your uterus to attach to its lining and continues to grow for the next 9 months. But in 1 of 50 pregnancies, the fertilized egg stays in the fallopian tube….