Posted on August 17, 2009 in Our Blog,Patient Care,Patient Death

Another excellent story in the Seattle PI sheds some light on the state of our nation’s hospitals. The article is full of frightening statistics about medical errors and preventable deaths. I used to think hospitals must be among the safest places to be, but now I am not so sure. Before I scare you with… read more

Posted on August 14, 2009 in Our Blog,Patient Death

You hear a lot about patients who seek drugs from doctors, but you don’t hear as much about doctors overprescribing drugs (“as much,” I said. We’ve previously discussed the Payette Clinic and its alleged overprescription of narcotics). Perhaps this is because most of us trust that doctors only prescribe medications that we really need. Why,… read more

Posted on July 17, 2009 in Our Blog,Public Safety

The number of on-site construction fatalities in Texas in recent years has increased enough to prompt an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In 2003 there were 110 construction deaths in Texas. In 2007 there were 144, and more than half of those killed were Hispanic. OSHA plans to send additional inspectors… read more

Posted on June 22, 2009 in General,Our Blog,Public Safety

One of the best things about making chocolate chip cookies has got to be taking bites of the raw cookie dough. Unfortunately, if you recently bought Nestle’s Toll House cookie or brownie dough and sampled the raw dough, you may have gotten sick, as some of the dough was found to be tainted with the… read more

Posted on June 17, 2009 in Our Blog,Public Safety

Recently we blogged about the dangers of zinc buildup as a result of long-term use of denture creams, and now it seems zinc once again rears its ugly head! The popular over-the-counter cold remedy, Zicam, can allegedly harm or destroy a user’s sense of smell. Only the nasal products are involved. Since 1999, when Zicam… read more

Posted on May 18, 2009 in Our Blog,Public Safety

An interesting article in the New York Times explores the sad state of food safety today. As more and more food manufacturers look to global suppliers, and as the supply chain becomes more complex, safety is often overlooked or simply becomes too difficult to oversee. The article looks to the salmonella food contamination outbreak in… read more

Posted on May 12, 2009 in Our Blog,Patient Care

Childbirth and aging can have some unpleasant effects on your bladder, but you may want to think twice before undergoing any medical procedures to fix the problem. Nobody wants to leak urine, so it’s understandable that women suffering from stress urinary incontinence would turn to medical alternatives, such as a vaginal sling–a mesh device inserted… read more

Posted on April 28, 2009 in General,Our Blog

News about the possibility of a pandemic flu has thrown many people into a panic. The swine flu outbreak has already killed more than 150 people in Mexico, and more and more cases are being diagnosed each day. The World Health Organization raised the influenza pandemic alert level to phase 4, indicating human-to-human transmission of… read more

Posted on March 20, 2009 in Our Blog

In a recent post I discussed the gag order some doctors are trying to place on their patients to prevent them from posting negative information online. As I mentioned, the Internet is everyone’s playground, and the rules are few. Now courtrooms are discovering this to be true, as jurors are dropping hints about trials and… read more

Posted on March 12, 2009 in Our Blog,Public Safety

The Oregonian just published a story on the number of Oregon workers who died on the job. In 2008, 44 Oregonians died while working, up from 35 deaths in 2007. The largest percentage of the deaths took place in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries: 15 workers, including 7 firefighters who died in a helicopter… read more