LawSquawker • Thomas & Wan's Blawg

Damning Government Investigation and Report Details Serious Safety Lapses at CHI St. Luke’s, Houston, Texas Patients received medications that weren’t ordered by doctors; objects were mistakenly left in patients after surgery; and ultrasound probes were reused without being property disinfected, government inspectors found. The hospital says it is fixing the problems. https://www.propublica.org/…/st-lukes-in-houston-blistering… Yuck, cleaning a transvaginal transducer with tap water and paper towels??! Sad, St. Luke's used to be a respected hospital. In an interview conducted on 3/27/19 at 10:10 am, Staff#122 was asked by the surveyor how she was disinfecting the transvaginal transducers.  She stated, "I just run them under the tap water and wipe them off with a paper towel."

5 Things You Need to Know about Preventable Newborn Brain Injuries What is HIE? HIE stands for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy(now you see why its abbreviation is easier). HIE is a type of newborn brain damage, due to oxygen deprivation and limited blood flow during labor and delivery. It can happen because of a problem with mom’s placenta, an umbilical cord being compressed or knotted, a baby getting stuck or wedged in the mom’s pelvis, preeclampsia, or too much stimulation of the mom’s uterus from Pitocin or another drug like Cytotec, to name a few causes. Will you see HIE in your baby immediately? Some obvious signs that baby was injured at delivery include the baby being limp, pale, blue, not crying, needing to be intubated or requiring CPR, transfer to NICU, failure to feed, unable to be calmed, seizures, just as a few examples. The full extent of the damage isn’t apparent immediately at birth for a few reasons. The reason is, a brain injury from HIE is an evolvi

1.      How frequently is this happening at the hospital? A global study has shown that 52% of patients are at risk for dangerous blood clots. WOW, that’s a huge percentage. If a blood clot isn’t detected, you can die. How you ask?   A blood clot can break away from your leg and get stuck in your lung. If nothing is done, this often results in death. 2.      Why do they happen in hospitalized patients? Hospitalized patients are at risk mainly after surgery as they are immobilized and laying in a hospital bed for an extended period of time. Immobility causes blood flow in the legs to be slow. Slow moving blood is more likely to clot than normal flowing blood. 3.      How can nurses and doctors prevent them in the hospital? Nurses and doctors are crucial in compliance and being educated in patient care. The hospital’s solution to the problem needs to be blood thinners or compression socks/SCDS in these types of situations. In a study I read, 10-14% of patients weren’t receiv