Current Events

Billings Clinic in Montana is the safest hospital in the US, while Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago scored lowest, according to Consumer Reports’ first-ever list of the best and worst medical facilities.

According to the organization, a 2010 US Department of Health and Human Services report said that infections, surgical error, and other types of medical malpractice contribute to the deaths of as many as 180,000 Medicare patients each year, and most likely numerous non-Medicare patients as well.

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Volvo Car Corp. (175), the Swedish carmaker owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., was fined $1.5 million by U.S. auto-safety regulators for failing to report safety defects.

Volvo, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, didn’t disclose six defects that led to recalls in 2010 and one this year within five business days of determining that a safety flaw exists, as required by U.S. law, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today in a statement posted on its website.

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Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline this morning pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston to two counts of introducing misbranded drugs — Paxil and Wellbutrin — into interstate commerce and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration.

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Medical devices including catheters, defibrillators, heart stents and artificial joints will carry unique identification numbers under a plan proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to improve patient safety.

The program would apply to most medical devices and cost as much as $68.4 million a year, according to a pending rule proposal made public on the FDA’s website today. The plan would be implemented over seven years to allow companies, doctors, hospitals and regulators to prepare and spread out the costs.

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TROY — He could no longer stand the agony. So Anthony Piscitella made a decision that might lead to financial ruin.

The first thing you should know about Piscitella is that he has a horribly bad back, a source of grinding pain. It's been that way for about a decade, since the former occupational therapist's attempt to move an obese patient went horribly and ridiculously awry.

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Autonomous braking and adaptive headlights provide the biggest benefits, study says

TUESDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Certain new crash-avoidance systems are effective in preventing car accidents, while others may do more harm than good, researchers say.
 

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Pharmaceutical drug maker GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to federal charges to resolve a slew of criminal and civil issues stemming from its use of kickbacks, mis-branding and other misconduct to market drugs such as Paxil, Wellbutrin and Advair, the U.S. government announced.

The agreement is the largest healthcare fraud settlement in history, spanning nearly every state, according to the Justice Department. It’s also the largest payment ever by a drug company.

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Roche Holding AG (ROG) must pay a total of $18 million in damages to two former users of its Accutane acne drug who blamed the medicine for their bowel disease, a New Jersey jury ruled.

Jurors in state court in Atlantic City deliberated about six hours today before that finding officials of Basel, Switzerland-based Roche failed to properly warn Kathleen Rossitto and Riley Wilkinson that Accutane could cause inflammatory bowel disease. Rossitto and Wilkinson were each awarded $9 million in compensatory damages. At the same time, the panel rejected claims by two other former users of the drug.

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Schumer says painkiller abuse by mothers is the same kind of scourge as the problem of crack babies and society risks doing 'too little, too late'

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The long, nagging problem of reports of unintended acceleration and sticky pedals just won't go away for Toyota Motor Corp.

The Japanese automaker on Friday expanded its 2009 recall of vehicles for pedal entrapment to include 154,000 model year 2010 RX 350 and RX 450h (hybrid) SUVs from its Lexus luxury line, the first new recall for the issue since early 2011.

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U.S. health regulators censured Covidien Plc for failing to promptly address complaints related to deaths and serious injuries linked to its devices used in thoracic surgery.

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