Some medical conditions can be missed until they cause such severe symptoms that they lead to a visit to a North Carolina emergency room. Heart failure is such a disease, often diagnosed in emergency situations. However, electronic health records may be used in the...
Medical Malpractice
Prescription mistakes continue to pose a danger to patients
The electronic monitoring systems hospitals in North Carolina and around the country use to detect mistakes when doctors prescribe medication for patients may not be doing their job as well as people in the health care field might have originally thought. Facilities...
Communication may be key to preventing medical errors
Many North Carolina residents are caregivers for their elderly parents. When a parent takes several different medications, making certain that all of the doctors and other health care professionals are on the same page is very important. Errors are much more likely to...
Hospitalists and malpractice in North Carolina
Hospitalists are a fairly new addition to the medical profession. They are individuals who generally perform the same duties as primary care physicians or family doctors, but in a hospital setting. Although board certification in hospital medicine only started in...
Study finds parents are helpful at detecting medical errors
Parents in North Carolina who have children in the hospital may want to speak up if they suspect that there has been a medical error. According to a study conducted at a hospital in Boston, parents of hospitalized children often notice medical errors that doctors...
Heart disease and misdiagnosis in North Carolina
A study that has been published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes indicates that women with anxiety may end up having signs of heart disease ignored. This is because many of the symptoms overlap, so a physician may be more likely to attribute things...
How people can ensure their prescriptions are correct
North Carolina residents trust their pharmacists to correctly fill their prescriptions. However, medication errors still take place. Whenever a pharmacist fills a patient's prescription with the incorrect medication, the wrong amount of pills or gives the wrong dosage...
Preventing harm to nursing home residents is not rocket science
Nursing homes and other skilled nursing facilities don't have a very good reputation. Most of these kinds of operations in North Carolina don't deserve the taint of such negative connotations. The care that is delivered to the most vulnerable members of our...
$10.1 million is awarded for hospital’s failure to diagnose
Failing to correctly diagnose a patient who visits an emergency room with ominous symptoms is a commonly reported medical negligence claim in North Carolina and nationwide. This may be particularly true when the patient appears at the emergency room more than once in...
What could be easier malpractice fix than cameras in the OR?
Errors committed by negligent doctors can be difficult to spot and hard to prove as being cases of medical malpractice. One reason that's true is that the mistake happens while the patient is under sedation. Other times, as we noted in a post last month, it's just a...