Dan Frith

The Roanoke Times newspaper contained an Associated Press article today (June 25, 2007) entitled “Drug-Resistant Staph Superbug Increasingly Prevalent, Study Says.”The article is about the shocking numbers of hospital and nursing home patients who are becoming sick with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which cannot be controlled by normal antibiotics. A…

The state Board of Medicine will give staff members more authority over many disciplinary cases to try to reduce a backlog of more than 2,000 complaints against doctors and other health professionals. It is about time!Under Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s “Virginia Performs” initiative, all of the state boards are being…

The parents of a Wanaque, New Jersey boy born with severe birth defects have won a $1.5 million settlement in their wrongful birth lawsuit against Physicians for Women of Wayne. The parents alleged that medical professionals responsible for reading a 19-1/2 week sonogram failed to observe a hand defect and…

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has highlighted sepsis (an infection of the blood) and identified several deficiencies which may lead to poor outcomes with patients with severe sepsis. The deficiencies include inconsistency in the early diagnosis of severe sepsis and septic shock, inadequate volume resuscitation, delayed use of antibiotics,…

The Tennessee Health Department fined and suspended new admissions to a nursing home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The 140-bed nursing home was ordered not to admit any new patients after the state conducted a complaint investigation June 3- 13.The state also imposed a $3,000 fine on Tennessee Veterans Home for having…

A nursing home corporation has been indicted in the 2004 death of a woman who lived in their Portland, Maine facility. Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America is charged with manslaughter, abuse and neglect of a long-term care resident. Read the report here.My home state of Virginia also has laws…

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Alterra Healthcare Corporation, which was one of the nation’s largest assisted living facility operators, had more than 200 residents who experienced neglect, injury, or death because of inadequate care during a four year period. The company paid more than $15.9 million to settle claims from…