False penicillin allergies limit effective antibiotic choices
A medical study has shown that the majority of people who believe that they have a penicillin allergy, in fact, do not. When wrongly labeled with this allergy, people in New York and elsewhere have their infections treated with alternative antibiotics that tend to be less effective and cost more. The unnecessary use of alternative antibiotics also increases opportunities for bacteria to develop a resistance to strong antibiotics.
Infusion errors account for over half of adverse drug events
The vast majority of people who enter hospitals in New York will receive an infusion during treatment. The ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit organization that promotes improvements in patient care, identified infusion errors as the top source of medical technology errors in 2017. Every year, 1.5 million adverse drug events afflict patients, and 54 percent of them arise from infusion errors.
Cancer misdiagnosis can have devastating consequences
It is estimated that less than 2 percent of potential cancer patients in New York and across the U.S. receive incorrect test results from a hospital pathology lab. While this number is relatively low, the consequences of such mistakes can be devastating for the patients involved.
Anemia drug could prevent birth-related brain injuries
New York readers may be interested to learn that an anemia drug might help prevent brain injuries after a baby is deprived of oxygen during its birth according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.
Detecting the signs of small intestine cancer
While there are several forms of cancer that begin in the small intestine, one form called adenocarcinoma is particularly hard to diagnose correctly. Residents of New York who share the following symptoms may want to see their doctor or get a second opinion, as the case may be, so that they do not incur further harm through a delayed diagnosis.
OB hospitalists reduce medical malpractice claims
Hospitals in New York and across the United States are turning to obstetrician hospitalists to cut down on physician and nurse burnout. An added benefit of this strategy is better patient care and a reduction in medical malpractice lawsuits.
Research shows data breaches increase patient deaths
According to a recent study, a startling number of patient deaths are related to data breaches at medical facilities. While the focus on data breaches usually revolves around a hospital’s monetary loss, a data breach can in fact directly impact the health of patients in New York medical facilities.
Low-income patients may be at higher risk for colon cancer
Cancer is a word that invokes fear in people across all ethnic and economic areas, but persons in New York who fall within lower-income parameters may have a higher risk of complications and death due to colorectal cancer. While a person’s socioeconomic status may not be directly to blame for the trend, certain factors have been identified that correlate between lower incomes and higher incidences of advanced cancers of the colon.
Data entry software can help avoid medical mistakes
For many patients in New York, misdiagnosis can be a major concern. When a person has a progressive disease that is not caught in time, the consequences can be severe and even deadly. Therefore, cutting down on diagnostic errors is a major priority for health institutions, insurers and doctors.
Patients with mitochondrial diseases often misdiagnosed
For some New York residents, getting diagnosed with a rare disease, like a mitochondrial disease, can be extremely difficult. In some cases, patients may see multiple doctors and undergo a variety of different tests before being diagnosed with a mitochondrial disease.