Documents reveal confusion about whether Chiu, who had been sent by an agency and was working his first day at the center, was properly screened. He was placed there by an anesthesiologist "broker" that had a contract with the center, a common practice. Unlike many hospitals, the country's more than 5,400 independent outpatient surgery centers often contract with outside companies to provide anesthesiologists, rather than employ them.
Hospitals across the United States are throwing away less-than-perfect organs and denying the sickest people lifesaving transplants out of fear that poor surgical outcomes will result in a federal crackdown.
With abuse of opioid painkillers a major public health threat in the United States, many worry that post-surgical use might trigger addiction. But a new study suggests that painkiller abuse arises in only a very small fraction — less than half of 1 percent — of cases involving people aged 65 or older.
Workers at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs failed for years to properly disinfect vaginal ultrasound probes and other pieces of medical and surgical equipment, according to a state Health Department investigation conducted earlier this year.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released an updated recommendation ("I" statement) this week citing insufficient evidence for universal screening for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and multifactorial dyslipidemia in children and adolescents.