Patients in pediatric intensive care units (pediatric ICUs) are at greater risk of developing a dangerous infection than patients in adult intensive care units (adult ICUs) according to a new study conducted by Consumer Reports. The study found that pediatric ICUs had a 20% higher rate of dangerous infections than adult ICUs.

As a parent there are steps that you can take to help protect your child from dangerous infections. Specifically, you can:

• Talk to the pediatric ICU staff about the steps they take to control infection.
• Make sure everyone who comes near your child, and especially near your child’s central line, is scrubbed and uses sterile equipment.
• Ask if the central line is still necessary for your child’s care and ask that it be removed as soon as it is safe to do so.
• Keep your own hands clean and insist on the same from all visitors.
• Speak up if you think something is wrong.

Remember, that while these steps may help protect your child, it is the hospital’s responsibility to prevent infections. If the hospital has failed to use reasonable care in the treatment of your child, including protecting your child from dangerous infections, then your family may have the right to recover damages for the injuries suffered by your child due to the hospital medical malpractice.

Last week the results of a federal investigation were released. Federal investigators found that hospital workers only report about 1 in 7 errors, accidents, and other adverse events that harm Medicare patients. What’s more hospitals rarely change their practices when they do report and investigate errors.

The problem is not that hospitals lack appropriate reporting systems. The systems are in place, but workers are allegedly not using the systems. In the past errors often went unreported because staff were afraid to report the errors. Now, the problem seems to be one of recognizing when an error has occurred rather than fear. Investigators found that staff were not reporting errors because they:

• Were unaware what constituted patient harm.
• Assumed someone else would make the report.
• Felt the error was so common that it did not need to be reported.
• Felt the error was an isolated event unlikely to recur so that there was no need to report it.

Medicare has indicated that it will provide guidance to hospitals to clear up any reporting confusion and to help prevent the underreporting of medical errors in the future.

A new paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine highlights two different ways deaths are used to measure hospital quality of care. Some insurers and states look at whether the patient dies within 30 days while other insurers and states look at whether the patient dies at the hospital.

The paper’s authors find the two different methods of using death as an indicator of hospital quality to be troublesome and suggest moving to the 30 day rule. The 30 day rule could prevent premature discharges and include deaths that occur outside of the hospital, for example. Looking at deaths in hospitals they argue favors hospitals that routinely have shorter lengths of stay or transfer patients.

What do you think? Is a 30 day rule more accurate? Is death a good indicator of quality of care? Please leave a comment and let our Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyers know what you think.

There are efforts that hospitals can take to reduce readmission rates after a hospitalization. In the third quarter of 2011, 29 hospitals in Southeastern Pennsylvania participated in a safety improvement project.

Together, the hospitals were able to prevent about 400 readmissions and save about $3.8 million in healthcare costs.

How Did They Do This?

One of the key steps taken by the hospitals was to improve communication with patients and their families. This included making sure patients, and their caretakers, understood both the patient’s condition and the patient’s discharge instructions.

A hospital readmission is not only costly but also dangerous and may be the result of a medical mistake or medical malpractice. If you, or a loved one, are in the hospital you can help reduce the chances of being readmitted by making sure you understand your condition and what you should do to stay healthy after your hospitalization.

Some test results that once required the expertise of a lab to determine, and the patience of a saint to wait for, are now promptly available at a patient’s bedside. In some cases, that is good news for the patient.

However, as with many medical advantages, the opportunity for negligent mistakes and medical malpractice complications exists. Last month, a special issue of Point of Care: The Journal of Near-Patient Testing & Technology was devoted to patient safety and avoiding medical errors.

While the articles, editorials and other submissions addressed a wide arrange of issues, much of the content suggested that systemic approaches to patient safety (such as patient identification and system alerts) and operator training are critical to the successful implementation of point of care testing.

Have you ever had point of care testing? Were you confident in the test results or concerned that a mistake had been made? Please leave a comment and let us know.