Medical Apps: When Sharing Goes Too Far
There’s an app for that. Ever since Apple claimed primacy over the smartphone universe, we’ve all become familiar with that refrain. And as noted in a recent report on NPR, mobile medical applications...
View ArticleA Hospital Breaches a Patient’s Privacy to Fight the Patient’s Claims of Bad...
Unless there’s a subpoena, no one may review your medical records except the practitioners who treat you and the facilities where they do it, the insurance company that covers you and hospital...
View ArticlePrescription Privacy Is a Myth
In recent months, Los Angeles Times consumer columnist David Lazarus has disclosed the scummy practices of several national pharmacy chains, including misleading, if not outright lying, about charging...
View ArticleFew Consequences Result When Health Data Is Breached
A recent investigation by ProPublica.org shows not only that the medical community regularly abuses patient privacy, but that the responsible parties are seldom punished. Since October 2009, more than...
View ArticleDoctor Challenges Drug Database Monitors on Privacy Grounds
The epidemic of accidental deaths due to overdosing on opioid medicines has been well-documented. The perils of chronic pain management are the subject of Patrick’s patient safety newsletter this...
View ArticleWhen Malpractice Starts with a Doctor’s Mouth
A northern Virginia man successfully sued a doctor for defamation and medical malpractice, earlier this month receiving a judgment of $500,000 for the serious – and, frankly, weird – ethical and...
View ArticleWrong but Common Words: “We Can’t Tell You; It Would Violate HIPAA”
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a familiar document to anyone who’s had a medical appointment or procedure in the last couple of decades. It defines standards for the...
View ArticleProtect Yourself Against Medical ID Theft
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published an unnerving story about what can happen to your sense of security, not to mention your actual financial security, when someone steals your medical...
View ArticleThe Darker Side of Workplace Wellness Programs
Corporate wellness programs aren’t new, but their popularity is growing as companies seek ways to minimize spending on health care. But a lot of people within and outside of the health-care system...
View ArticleA sick use of cellphone pics, social media: staffers’ abuse of aged patients
Not all care-giving positions carry high status or lavish compensation. Still, why would anyone take on any health care work lacking basic common sense and the tiniest bit of compassion? That’s what...
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When money is no object, quality of care can suffer
Because money makes such a difference in health care in the United States, what happens when it’s no object? The results aren’t pretty, a prestigious Boston hospital has found. It rolled out the red...
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Orlando shootings raise health care concerns
Here’s hoping that the mass shooting in Orlando will focus attention on some health care issues that the event flushed into open view: Do we need to update and rethink policies that restrict or bar...
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Lawsuits underscore need for caution with sperm banks
A reported rash of new lawsuits offers a poignant, sadly recurrent reminder: Aspiring parents who rely on commercial sperm banks for critical reproductive tissues must heed an ancient consumer...
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Investigation uncovers troubling numbers of sexual assaults in nursing homes
It’s one of the more disturbing, revolting, and painful health care investigations put out by a news organization in recent times. It’s disheartening but it also demands action: So, what steps will...
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Here’s why you’re getting those unsolicited mailings about clinical trials
When consumers around the country started getting letters from a company that they had never heard of, inviting them to participate in clinical trials for medical conditions that they hadn’t disclosed...
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Why you will see many fewer erectile dysfunction ads this fall: a story of...
This fall’s National Football League games will be markedly different in an unexpected way that also offers insight into the nation’s skyrocketing costs of medical care. The makers of the erectile...
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New disclosures deepen scandal over DC hospital’s risky obstetrics care
Doctors and hospitals across the country push the frontiers of medical science every day, finding new ways to improve health care and to change and save lives. But at the same time, some of medicine’s...
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Ravages of opioid drug abuse epidemic worsen, grow ever more complex
The myriad problems tied to the nation’s opioid drug abuse epidemic seem only to worsen and grow more complex by the day. They are, recent news reports say: contributing to new outbreaks of syphilis, a...
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Nursing homes, where more of us will go, fail to properly report abuse cases
With more Americans than previously thought needing care in the nation’s nursing homes, will more of us start to pay greater attention to the unacceptable and under-reported elder abuse occurring...
View ArticleIn hospitals, angry guys with guns (even with badges) are a bad idea
Medicine and law enforcement can be a combustible combination, as a widely publicized incident in a Utah emergency room has reminded. The ugly incident has underscored the importance of hospitals...
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