Delirium? Now what?

By Derek S. Mongold, MD My father is in the hospital and they say that he has delirium. What exactly is delirium? Delirium is a state of severe confusion that is usually brought on by a medical condition. It’s thought to be due to the brain producing too much dopamine and to little acetylcholine. Dopamine and acetylcholine are neurotransmitters (chemicals) that neurons (the main cells of the brain) use to communicate with each other. Nobody…

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Doctors and Social Media: Legal Aspects and Bottom Line

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA The health care social media legal series continues here on Healthin30, and legal expert, David Harlow, Esq, Health Care Attorney and Consultant at The Harlow Group, LLC in Boston, answers a series of questions focusing on the legal aspects of physicians engaging in social media. Health Care Social Media – Legal Aspects Q: Barbara – According to the American Medical Association, it states:  “When physicians see content posted by…

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Time to Eliminate Dangerous Injection Practices by Clinicians

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Thanks to Laura Landro for shining light on unsafe injections in her WSJ blog, “Unsafe Injection Practices Persist Despite Education Efforts.” Landro writes: “A new push is underway to eliminate unsafe injection practices, which remain a persistent safety problem despite years of efforts to educate clinicians about the risks of re-using needles, syringes and drug vials. In the U.S., failure to follow safe practices in delivering intravenous medications and…

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Technology Is Not The Reason For Cost Escalation in Health Care – It Is How We Misuse It

Guest post by Stephen C. Schimpff, MD We are often told that the reason for the high cost of medical care is all of our new technologies and drugs. There is an element of truth in that but when used correctly, new technologies save lives and improve the quality of patient care and often improve safety.  But technologies used inappropriately increase costs while not improving quality and may adversely impact safety. Here is a patient…

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