New York Injury Talk Blog

According to the New York Times, The New York State Department of Health is again investigating Mercy Medical Center. Investigations of Mercy began last year when a woman had a double mastectomy immediately after receiving the news that she had breast cancer. The next day the woman died from complications of her surgery. Unfortunately, according to the State Department of Health, the 30 year-old woman never had cancer. Mercy Hospital’s lab had mixed up the woman’s test results with another woman’s results. Mercy Hospital, through its spokesperson, refused to release the woman’s name. In October of last year the Health Department concluded the investigation in that death by indicating that Mercy had taken proper ‘corrective action’ after the medical malpractice lab mix-up.

Now, the Health Department is investigating Mercy for the deaths of three other patients, and according to the Times this investigation was instigated by one of Mercy’s own doctors. Dr. Anthony Colantonio reported, according to the Times, that a physician’s assistant caused the deaths of three people: a 65 year-old man; a 64 year-old woman; and, a 19 year-old woman when catheters, chest tubes and pacemakers were improperly inserted into those patients.

Claudia Hutton, a spokesperson for the New York Health Department, indicated that the investigation is ongoing and she said it was unclear when the investigation would conclude. The Times further reports that a 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences showed that medical errors were responsible for the wrongful deaths of between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year in the United States.

Continue reading "LONG ISLAND’S MERCY HOSPITAL UNDER SCRUTINY AGAIN AFTER THE DEATHS OF SEVERAL PATIENTS" »

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STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT FAILS TO WARN PATIENTS FOR OVER THREE YEARS OF POSSIBLE SERIOUS HEALTH HAZARDS AFTER PATIENTS ARE INJECTED WITH SOLUTION FROM CONTAMINATED VIALS

According to the New York Times, the New York state Health Department took 34 months to inform 628 patients that they should be tested for 2 types of hepatitis and HIV that may have infected their bodies when Dr. Harvey S. Finkelstein, an anesthesiologist, injected patients with medicine from contaminated multiple-dose vials. All of the cases involved epidural injections for pain by Dr. Finkelstein. The Times also reported that Dr. Finkelstein’s faulty practice directly caused at least one case of hepatitis C to be transmitted from one of his patients to another. Further, Nassau County health officials said they are now investigating a case of hepatitis B in an effort to establish whether that case of hepatitis is linked to Dr. Finkelstein.

Because of Dr. Harvey S. Finkelstein’s alleged poor infection-control practices, and because of the criticism in the nearly three year delay in notifying patients of possible health hazards, the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, has formulated a series of internal changes that would work to prevent delays in warnings in the future. Dr. Daines has formed a task force that will report to him on a monthly basis. The monthly report will contain such information as:

• All open investigations into doctors’ practices,
• Dr. Daines will request that reports from the various divisions of the Health Department that had not previously coordinated their efforts, now seek to do so
• The Health Department may diligently and aggressively seek to obtain medical records of physicians who are involved in cases where a health hazard is present

Continue reading "STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT FAILS TO WARN PATIENTS OF SERIOUS HEALTH HAZARDS " »

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According to a recent article, published in the New York Times, and in response to widely held public concerns about preventable and deadly hospital-acquired infections, The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, began publishing statistics on infections and deaths at its 11 hospitals on September 7th of this year. The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the nation’s largest public health system, treats 1.3 million patients a year according to the Corporation’s website.

The Times reported that the federal Centers for Disease Control estimated that in any given year 1.7 million patients will get a hospital-acquired infection during their hospital stay. Out of those 1.7 million, 99,000 people, or about 270 per day, will die.

A New York medical malpractice law, requiring hospitals to report specific infections to the State Health Department will result in the State Department issuing hospital report cards in 2009. While mandated infection reporting is only required in a few states. New Jersey’s legislature has passed a bill requiring hospitals to report infections, and that bill is now before the Governor. USA Today reported, that many hospitals have ‘balked’ at requests to provide statistics on hospital-acquired infections.

Simple, and easily implemented steps, like physician and staff members washing their hands between patients, would lessen the opportunity for a hospital acquired infection. But, according to Clean Your Hands’ website, a study reported in Emerging Infectious Diseases in April of this year, compliance with hand-washing is poor.

About.com had several suggestions on how patients can empower themselves when hospitalized. As a patient, you can:
• Insist that anyone who touches you washes and sanitizes their hands. That includes medical personnel, dinner tray delivery people, visitors, even family members. And, according to about.com, just wearing gloves isn't good enough. Gloves may protect the wearer, but not the patient because the infection-causing pathogen may be present on the outside of the gloves.
• Insist that anything you touch is clean. That includes the telephone; the TV remote; the doctor’s stethoscope; bandages and dressing; and, catheters

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice

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