New doctors linked to unnecessary deaths, especially in July

(NaturalNews) If you plan on going to a teaching hospital for a test or elective procedure, here's a warning that could save your life: Stay away from the hospital in July. The reason? According to a new study headed by Dr. David Phillips and Gwendolyn Barker from the University of California, San Diego, fatal medication errors soar that month -- especially in teaching hospitals.

The research team investigated the cause behind the so-called curious "July Effect" that has long been noted to worsen the outcomes of patients being treated in teaching hospitals during the month of July. Phillips and Barker focused on 244,388 U.S. death certificates issued between 1979 and 2006 that listed fatal medication errors as the primary cause of death. Then they compared the number of deaths that occurred in July with the number of expected events in a given month for a given year. Next, they looked to see if there were any differences between deaths in and out of hospitals in July and in counties that had or lacked teaching hospitals.

The research, which was just published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found a clear association between inexperienced physicians and deadly medical errors. Specifically, the spike in hospital deaths each year from medication mistakes (such as accidental overdoses, wrong drugs given, and accidents in the use of drugs during medical and surgical procedures) in July coincided exactly with the annual influx of thousands of rookie doctors who begin their medical residencies and take on responsibility for patient care that month.

This July peak in fatal drug errors was seen only in counties with teaching hospitals. In fact, the greater the concentration of teaching hospitals in a region, the greater the July spike in deaths. This was no little insignificant blip in the number of fatal physician screw-ups, either. The number of July deaths from medication mistakes linked to new doctors was a full 10 percent higher than the expected level.

"Our findings provide fresh evidence for 1. re-evaluating responsibilities assigned to new residents; 2. increasing supervision of new residents; 3. increasing education concerned with medication safety," the authors of the study concluded. "Incorporating these changes might reduce both fatal and non-fatal medication errors and thereby reduce the substantial costs associated with these errors."

For more information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...

1,200 patients killed in hospital, abused by staff, lying in filth1,200 patients killed in hospital, abused by staff, lying in filth

(NaturalNews) A huge U.K. health care scandal recently shocked the public with reports that up to 1,200 patients in a British hospital needlessly died from abuse and neglect. And the worst part is that not a single worker involved has been prosecuted for his crimes.

It all started when an independent review of the U.K.'s Mid Staffordshire National Health Service (NHS) hospital found that patients there were routinely neglected, bullied, abused and treated poorly. The details of the report include evidence that:

-Nurses regularly ignored patients and left them unwashed in their own filth for as long as a month, and even ignored requests by patients to use the restroom or have their sheets changed.

-Four family members, including a newborn baby girl, all died at the hospital due to carelessness and malpractice. The baby had to be delivered by her grandmother because the midwife was not paying attention. Upon birth, the baby was not breathing, but workers resuscitated her. However she died four days later because a junior pediatrician went against the family's wishes and decided to release the sick baby.

-Patients were regularly released prematurely because medical workers feared they would lose their jobs for perceived "delaying".

-Hospital wards were filthy and contaminated with blood, used needles, and dirty dressings.

Those workers who had concerns about the horrible conditions at the hospital were bullied by managers into not coming forward with the truth. And what researchers initially perceived as having caused 400 deaths ended up burgeoning into 1,200.

Those responsible for the atrocious conditions have either retired with generous pensions or found other jobs in the field. None have had to bear the responsibility for their crimes, and many have not even responded to the allegations.

According to the accusing parties, hospital officials were so concerned with cost-cutting and pursuing "elite foundation trust status" that they lost sight of actually caring for their patients.

Part of the problem also lies in what has been termed "box-ticking", or merely checking a box and sending a patient off to a ward to die. The formulaic method to which the hospital philosophy of care had devolved is the subject of investigation, as concerned officials pursue justice in the matter. Many are demanding a full public inquiry into the case.

The report also outlined that the hospital staff count was allowed to dwindle so low that there were simply not enough caretakers to handle all the patients. And while some did their best to provide care, many displayed a disturbing lack of compassion and simply discarded patient needs, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Even basic needs like changing bedpans and sheets and bringing food and water were neglected.

Former chief executive of the hospital, Martin Yeates, was suspended from his job, but with full pay for six months and a hefty pension.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...

200,000 Americans Killed Each Year in Hospitals by Medical Error

(NaturalNews) According to "Dead By Mistake," a report detailing the findings of an investigation by the Hearst Corporation, approximately 200,000 people die in the United States every year from hospital infections and preventable medical errors. To make matters worse, the situation has not changed from 10 years ago, when the recommendations of a similar report by the federal government went ignored.

Car accidents, often classified as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, kill fewer than 50,000 people per year.

"Ten years ago, the highly-publicized federal report, 'To Err Is Human,' highlighted the alarming death toll from preventable medical injuries and called on the medical community to cut it in half in five years," the new report says. "Its authors and patient safety advocates believed that its release would spur a revolution in patient safety. But … the federal government and most states have made little or no progress in improving patient safety through accountability mechanisms or other measures."

According to "Dead By Mistake," only 20 states require that medical errors be reported, and even among these, standards vary widely and enforcement is inconsistent. Five states are implementing mandatory reporting systems, five have voluntary systems, and 20 have no error reporting systems at all.

The Hearst report accuses lobbyists of working to ensure that the 1999 report's recommendation of a nationwide mandatory error reporting system was never implemented.

Common medical errors include prescription errors and surgeries or other procedures conducted on the wrong organ or the wrong side of the body. Common causes of medical errors include sleep deprivation by care providers, poor patient-doctor communication, insufficient nurses, poor documentation and illegible handwriting.

The report recommends that patients look after their own safety by becoming better informed about procedures and medications they are being given, which includes actively asking questions of health care providers. Specific measures, such as having a doctor mark the site of an operation in permanent marker, can also decrease the risk of certain errors.

Sources for this story include: www.cbsnews.com.