When it comes to healthcare, knowledge is indeed power. When patients are given access to information about their care, they become empowered to make informed decisions about their healthcare providers, their treatment and about their health generally. Although physicians are trained experts in the field of medicine, a high rate…
Patients who are feeling sick or experiencing worrisome symptoms often seek medical help. In many cases, doctors are able to quickly and accurately diagnose an individual’s condition and prescribe appropriate medications. In other cases, however, doctors err in their attempts to diagnose an individual’s illness or disease. When a failure…
According to an annual report by Diederich Healthcare, total medical malpractice payouts in the state of New York amounted to roughly $39 per capita in both 2012 and 2013. That is the highest per capita rate in the nation—fifty percent higher than any other state. Given this information, one might…
Even though doctors still “write prescriptions” they generally don’t give patients in Syracuse a written prescription from the prescription pad anymore. Rather, they send the information to the pharmacy, whether that is the pharmacy in the hospital, the doctor’s office or just down the street. Once it is at the…
When someone goes to the doctor in Binghamton and is told he or she has cancer, his or her first thought is likely about how to treat it. While treating cancer seems like the obvious choice, there are some within the medical field who believe that treatment, or at least…
When someone in Syracuse goes in for surgery, he or she has absolutely no control over the sterilization processes used, how the operating room was cleaned and sanitized, or whether the doctors are doing everything they can to prevent the transfer of germs and disease. With the exception of just…
A former Poughkeepsie, New York, orthopedic surgeon who is facing multiple medical malpractice lawsuits performed a stunning number of surgeries — an average of 17 a day. This is based on surgical logs obtained by multiple sources. The surgeon, who was fired from a local medical group in 2011, has…
The Syracuse Post-Standard has just published documents detailing a potentially catastrophic medical mistake by St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in October 2009. They were about to harvest the organs of a patient they believed to be dead when she opened her eyes. Doctors determined that a woman who had overdosed…
A proposed law that would have eased the statute of limitations on medical malpractice lawsuits has died in the New York State Assembly. The proposed legislation was known as Lavern’s Law, after a Brooklyn woman who died of lung cancer this year. The saga of the bill’s namesake began in…
Four nurses at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, New York, have been charged with illegally dispensing medication. The most recent nurse to be arrested was a full-time emergency room nurse, while the other three were traveling nurses. The full-time nurse, who has been suspended, was found to have discrepancies in…