The federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act went into effect in 2005 to shield doctors and other medical professionals from liability during public health emergencies. In March 2020, former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked...
The summer is quickly approaching. Time to hit the beach, take your boat out on the lake or pull your bike out of hibernation. Whatever your plans, it’s especially important to take any measures you can to keep yourself safe and healthy this summer. Of course, it’s...
Many surgeries use machines to assist the surgeons who are performing the procedure. While this is a good thing in most instances since machines aren't as likely to make mistakes as humans, there is still a chance that errors will be made.One thing that patients must...
Having surgery can be an ordeal. Worry. Anesthesia. A lengthy healing process. In addition to the immediate danger of surgery, there can be risks afterward, too.One of the risks that comes with any surgical procedure is an infection of the surgical site. These can be...
Back in 1970, the first surgery center that wasn't in a hospital opened in Phoenix, Arizona. The pioneers who opened the center had a good thought, or so it seemed at the time. Medicare seemed to appreciate the fact that minor surgeries were much less expensive at...
An ophthalmologist recently agreed to pay the federal government $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit against him concerning the False Claims Act. The federal government alleges that Dr. John Arthur Kiely performed unnecessary surgeries on Medicare and Medicaid patients...
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) is an untreatable brain disease affecting one in one million people each year. It is thankful that CJD is rare, because it is often regarded as the human version of "mad cow" disease, quickly transforming healthy brain proteins into...
Ketamine is a commonly used anesthetic in pediatric operations, but it may be doing serious damage to young patients. According to a study published in Science Daily, children under age 3 who had lengthy exposure to ketamine during surgery displayed memory problems,...
After roughly eight years, an Indiana woman's medical malpractice claim has finally been resolved via a favorable jury verdict. The $1.5 million jury award is bittersweet; however, because the woman's suffering will continue throughout her lifetime.In 2003, a...
