Current Events

Providers may be underreporting to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) as more physicians become hospital employees, Medscape reported.

Malpractice payments hit a record low in 2011, according to a report from consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. The number of malpractice payments on behalf of doctors (9,758 payments) was the lowest since 1991, the first full year of data after the NPDB started collecting information. The average size of medical malpractice payments (about $327,000) amounted to $3.2 billion, adjusted for inflation.

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(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson faces a potentially more damaging and costly sequel to the $3 billion recall of its ASR all-metal artificial hips two years ago, one of the most expensive medical device failures in U.S. history.

A successor to ASR, the Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip system has nearly 1,600 lawsuits pending in U.S. courts. Doctors who are tracking large groups of patients with both products estimate that more than 10 percent of the Pinnacle all-metal hips will have failed in the next two to three years.

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In April, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the warning to finasteride, Merck & Co.’s drug marketed to treat both male pattern baldness (Propecia) and enlarged prostate (Proscar). The new warnings noted that the sexual side effects associated with the medication, including problems with libido, ejaculations and orgasm, could last even after patients stop taking the drug.

Now a new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine finds that side effects may not only continue after stopping finasteride, but they may last for months or even years.

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Quick, name America’s three best hospitals. Many people would probably identify places like the Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, and the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., which usually top the list in U.S. News & World Report‘s annual “Best Hospitals Guide.” But are they really the best?

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Virtually all nursing facilities are not compliant with federal regulations governing residents who take atypical antipsychotic medications, a federal review released Monday reveals.

The report, which is a review of a previous study by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, found that in nearly all (99.5%) of the records reviewed, nursing facility staff failed to meet one or more federal requirements for resident assessments and/or care plans for residents taking atypical antipsychotics.

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Stryker Orthopaedics has voluntarily recalled two brands of devices used in conjunction with artificial hips in hip replacement surgeries, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.

There have been at least 45 adverse event reports from patients who say the devices caused pain and/or tissue swelling.

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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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