Plastic surgeons are playing a part in the ongoing opioid epidemic and need to change some practices with patients, according to a professional journal. The topic paper, in the October 2017 issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), cited the use of opioids for pain… Continue reading Plastic Surgeons and the Painkiller Crisis
Tag: patients
How Health-Care Practitioners Can Help Patients Avoid Falls
Editor’s note: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2.8 million elderly people are treated annually in emergency rooms for falls, while more than 800,000 patients are hospitalized every year. And the incidence is likely to rise as 10,000 people in the U.S. turn 65 every day. Additionally, the National Council on Aging… Continue reading How Health-Care Practitioners Can Help Patients Avoid Falls
A New Way to Help Diabetes Patients
Researchers have developed a method of identifying those diabetes patients who are at most risk for being admitted to an emergency room or hospital because of very low blood sugar. The results of the research, led by investigators from Kaiser Permanente, was published in JAMA Internal Medicine in August 2017. Advances in care and improved… Continue reading A New Way to Help Diabetes Patients
Physicians, Health Care Workers and Hand Hygiene
Patients who have a new tool to ask physicians about their hand hygiene feel more empowered to do so, researchers say. The tool, a cardboard paddle (similar to a ping-pong racquet), has a question: “Did You Wash Your Hands?”. The study was published in the American Journal of Infection Control, the official journal of the… Continue reading Physicians, Health Care Workers and Hand Hygiene
Why Some Stroke Survivors Won’t Take Statins
Stroke survivors often steer clear of statins because of negative news about the medicines’ side effects, and because of their own bad experiences. However, the drugs are potentially lifesaving. Individuals who have had a stroke are at risk of a second stroke, which carries a greater risk of disability and death than first time strokes.… Continue reading Why Some Stroke Survivors Won’t Take Statins
At-Home Dementia Patients Can Face Risk in Using Antipsychotic Meds
“Off-label” use of antipsychotic medications to treat patients with dementia has been reduced dramatically in recent years due to education programs warning of increased risk of death. Bu those campaigns have not focused on care settings outside of nursing homes, leaving community-dwelling adults with dementia at risk of potentially fatal side effects, according to research… Continue reading At-Home Dementia Patients Can Face Risk in Using Antipsychotic Meds
Early Stage Breast-Cancer Patients May Be Getting Too Many Tests
Asymptomatic women who have been treated for early-stage breast cancer often undergo advanced imaging and other tests that provide little if any medical benefit, could have harmful effects and may increase their financial burden, according to a study from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The research was presented at the annual meeting of the American… Continue reading Early Stage Breast-Cancer Patients May Be Getting Too Many Tests
Hospitals and Data Breaches
People who are hospitalized have many things to worry about besides a personal data breach, yet this is happening at a startling rate: recent research co-authored by a Michigan State University business scholar found nearly 1,800 occurrences of large data breaches in patient information over a seven-year period. The study, by Xuefeng “John” Jiang, MSU… Continue reading Hospitals and Data Breaches
Music Therapy Eases Pain of Spinal-Surgery Patients
Music therapy has been found to decrease pain in patients recovering from spine surgery, compared to a control group of patients who received standard postoperative care alone. The study, published in The American Journal of Orthopedics, included a team of researchers from The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine and the Mount Sinai Department… Continue reading Music Therapy Eases Pain of Spinal-Surgery Patients
A New Approach to Giving Penicillins
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) investigators have developed two approaches to increasing the use of penicillins and cephalosporins – highly effective antibiotics that are not as problematic as many alternatives – in hospitalized patients previously believed to be allergic to penicillin. Their report, which has been published online in the… Continue reading A New Approach to Giving Penicillins
Ultraviolet Light Helps Battle Superbugs
Ultraviolet light could help in keeping drug-resistant bacteria from lingering in patients’ rooms and causing new infections, researchers say The new tool is known as UVC. Some hospitals have already begun using UVC machines in addition to standard chemical disinfection to kill potentially dangerous bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), but research on their… Continue reading Ultraviolet Light Helps Battle Superbugs
One Patient’s Health Crisis Can Negatively Affect Others
Hospital patients can suffer negative health effects if a person in their unit has a crisis such as being transferred to an intensive-care unit, according to new research by University of Chicago physicians. The effect was described in a research letter published in JAMA. The researchers found that when one patient on a typical 20-bed… Continue reading One Patient’s Health Crisis Can Negatively Affect Others
Vitamin D Can Help Older Patients Fight Respiratory Infections
Older, long-term care patients can reduce the incidence of acute respiratory illness by taking high doses of vitamin D, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The findings of the clinical trial, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, could help reduce one of the leading causes of serious… Continue reading Vitamin D Can Help Older Patients Fight Respiratory Infections
Many Patients Released before Vital Signs Are Stable
Twenty percent of people hospitalized are released before all vital signs are stable, a pattern that’s been linked to an increased risk of death and hospital readmission, a new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers shows. As hospital stays have shortened dramatically over the past 30 years, there is increasing concern that patients are… Continue reading Many Patients Released before Vital Signs Are Stable
Intensive-Care Units May Not Be Best for Some Patients
Patients who suffer heart attacks, or flare-ups of congestive heart failure, can be cared for in a variety of hospital locations. But a new study suggests that they’ll fare worse in hospitals that rely heavily on their intensive care units to care for patients like them. In fact, depending on where they go, they may… Continue reading Intensive-Care Units May Not Be Best for Some Patients
Patients Trust Doctors Who Acknowledge Their Own Bias
Patients tend to trust doctors more if they disclose a bias toward their specialty, research shows. In fact, though, such an admission should be a bit of a red flag to a patient. Doing research in a real-world health care setting, a Cornell expert and her colleagues have found that when surgeons revealed their bias… Continue reading Patients Trust Doctors Who Acknowledge Their Own Bias
Doctors Offer Solutions to Rising Drug Costs
The American College of Physicians (ACP) today released a new policy paper calling for changes that could slow the rising cost of prescription drugs. The paper, Stemming the Escalating Cost of Prescription Drugs, was published in Annals of Internal Medicine. “In the United States we pay comparatively much more for prescription drugs than other countries,… Continue reading Doctors Offer Solutions to Rising Drug Costs
Racial Bias May Be Conveyed by Doctors’ Body Language
When treating seriously ill patients, doctors give less compassionate verbal cues to black patients than to white patients, according to a small University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine trial revealed. It is the first to look at such interactions in a time-pressured, end-of-life situation. The finding, published in the January issue of the Journal of… Continue reading Racial Bias May Be Conveyed by Doctors’ Body Language