B. Braun Medical Inc., a manufacturer of the blood thinner heparin, has initiated a nationwide recall because some products may contain a potentially dangerous contaminant. Contaminated heparin from a different manufacturer has been associated with 19 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions.
JPS Hospital has unveiled its new five-story patient tower that is the first major addition to the taxpayer-supported hospital's main Fort Worth, TX, campus since 1991. The tower's amenities include 108 private patient rooms with computers and advanced medical equipment mounted on the ceiling. There are also twelve operating suites, each outfitted with a 42-inch plasma screen and multiple cameras that can wirelessly send video feeds to other parts of the hospital. JPS is spending about $93 million on the tower and a seven-level parking garage.
California regulators have fined Cedars-Sinai Medical Center $25,000 in connection with a series of safety lapses in which incorrect doses of the blood-thinner heparin were given to children. Cedars was one of 11 California hospitals assessed penalties because of license violations that caused, or were likely to cause, serious injury or death.
The Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles has released a study documenting the language barriers faced by nearly one in three Los Angeles County residents, or 2.5 million people. The data show that most of residents in five of the county's eight service planning areas--which are used to plan and deliver health and social services--speak a language other than English at home. Immigrant advocates say that scores of patients fall through the cracks, resulting in delayed care, misdiagnoses and unnecessary procedures leading in some cases to death.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center provides about 300 graduates a year to a state facing a shortage of pharmacists, nurses and nearly every other kind of medical professional. But now the school is facing an aging infrastructure, an inability to pull in top job candidates, and dwindling state funds. School administrators are now worrying that the problems could spread to student recruitment and, ultimately, the quality of Tennessee healthcare.
The Food and Drug Administration said it saw a higher death rate after five years among patients treated for abdominal aortic aneurysms with Medtronic Inc.'s AneuRx stent-graft system than among those treated through conventional surgery. The FDA said it was focusing on the AneuRx stent-graft system because it is the only currently marketed device that has a significant number of patients who have been followed for at least five years after receiving a device.