Nearly a fourth of Americans are now forced to travel farther to a hospital trauma center than they once did, a new study shows.
And those most affected are African Americans, poor, uninsured and rural residents.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco examined changes in driving time to trauma centers, which have increasingly been shuttered [...]
According to a “Report Card” published by the Center to Advance Palliative Care, the nation overall gets a “B” grade for caring for our sickest Americans, up from a “C,” when the report was first released in 2008.
“The good news is that over the last ten years hospital palliative care teams have more than doubled,” [...]
Older patients receiving carotid artery stenting from lesser experienced physicians had an increased risk of death 30 days after stent placement, according to a new study.
An analysis of Medicare data showed a higher death risk if the stent was inserted by a doctor who performed less than six procedures a year, or if the procedure [...]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Xarelto to reduce the risk of blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism following knee or hip replacement surgery.
Xarelto (rivaroxaban) is a pill taken once daily. Those undergoing a knee replacement should take the medication for 12 days and patients undergoing a hip replacement procedure should [...]
The number of surgical errors at VA medical centers is on the decline, according to the results of a new three-year study.
Researchers reviewed the VA National Center for Patient Safety database, looking for surgical adverse events and close calls that occurred between July 2006 and December 2009. The authors suggest possible reasons for the decline [...]
Obese patients are nearly 12 times more likely to suffer a complication following elective surgery than their normal-weight counterparts, according to new research.
“Our data demonstrate that obesity is a major risk factor for complications following certain kinds of elective surgery,” said Dr. Marty Makary, an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School [...]
Emergency department physicians are frustrated and burned out from treating patients who frequent the ED for their care, according to a survey of physicians from across the country.
The survey found that 59 percent of physicians acknowledged having less empathy for so-called frequent users than other patients, and 77 percent held bias for frequent users. Physicians [...]
While the length of hospital stay has decreased for patients undergoing hip replacement surgery, a new study shows an increase in the rates of readmission to the hospital and discharge to skilled care facilities.
Average hospital stays after total hip arthroplasty (replacement) has gone from 9 days in 1991 to 3.5 days in 2008, according to [...]
Surgery can improve eye comfort and quality of life for people with facial paralysis who can’t completely close their eyes, according to a small, new study.
The inability to close the eye can be a devastating result of facial paralysis.
“The resulting loss of corneal protection can lead to exposure keratitis [inflammation of the cornea], corneal ulceration, [...]
Thousands of women receive unnecessary surgical breast biopsies in Florida each year, researchers say, which carry greater health risks and are more expensive and less invasive than a needle biopsy.
“Open surgical biopsy is not accounting for 10 percent or 5 percent of initial breast biopsies, which is what’s recommended,” said Dr. Luke Gutwein, a surgical [...]