U.K. Doctors will face annual assessments so that licences can be removed from poor performers under proposals from England Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson. GPs, hospital consultants, and private practitioners will also have to renew their licences every five years under the plans. Senior doctors will be asked to assess others who are practicing in their area to ensure they are not putting patients at risk, and patients will also be asked for their feedback during the assessment process. Donaldon’s report, Medical Revalidation: Principle and Next Steps, will also suggest steps to ensure that doctors keep up to date with medical advances.
A U.S. advisory panel has found Doribax, an antibiotic produced by Johnson & Johnson, to be effective in treating patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia. The drug is already being used in hospitals to treat abdominal and urinary tract infections.
Hospitals reporting complications from preventable medical errors will no longer be reimbursed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. This follows a similar rule recently adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Both rulings will go into effect October 1.
While there is currently no national framework in place to regulate hospital reimbursements when an adverse event occurs, the Texas Hospital Association has adopted new principles that promote accountability for patient safety, and address policies for medical mistakes.
Officials at AARP New Jersey, to help seniors make educated decisions for the care, are pushing for the state Department of Health and Senior Services to provide detailed information about healthcare facilities that have reported serious harm or death due to medical errors. The agency puts out a Patient Safety Initiative Report annually, and currently only lists preventable medical errors.
A recent study found that surviving cancer can depend on location and even race. Researchers say that the country you live in, and in the United States, whether you're black or white, determines a person's odds for beating the disease. Among reasons cited for the findings were economic differences and access to healthcare.