Category: Medical Malpractice

When people need to have a surgical procedure, they’ll likely think they need to have it at the hospital. Then, they’ll probably need to stay there until they’re cleared to go home. This isn’t always the case. Now, people can have procedures at a surgery center and possibly be home within hours after the procedure is done. While this seems like a solution to giving patients the surgeries they need and allowing them to get back home as soon as possible, there are many risks involved with these establishments.

When an illness or injury appears out of the blue, you may be uncertain about where to go for care. If the symptoms you’re facing aren’t life-threatening, but your doctor can’t get you in right away or their office is closed, you can head to your closest urgent care clinic.

While many urgent care facilities offer convenient medical services, it’s not always the best place to go. It’s important to know when going to an urgent care clinic is a bad idea, so you can make the best decision for your health.

Here are some situations where going to an urgent care center may be a poor decision:

All acute-care hospital in Louisville, Kentucky and those in Floyd and Clark counties in Indiana will see reduced Medicare payments during the federal fiscal 2019.

The reductions are happening because the hospitals did not meet the performance standards established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program (VBP).

The VBP Program was implemented in 2012. It is designed to make the quality of care better for hospital patients and make hospital stays a better experience for patients. This program reduces all Medicare payments to participating hospitals by two percent and that money then gets redistributed to hospitals depending on their performance in a number of areas:

• Mortality and complications
• Healthcare-associated infections
• Patient safety
• Patient experience
• Process
• Efficiency and cost reduction

There are a number of breast implant patients who have developed a rare blood cancer called anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been investigating reports that link breast implants with cancer. There are currently more than 400 reports about patients who developed ALCL after getting implants, including nine who died.

Women may choose to get breast implants for breast reconstruction after mastectomy or for cosmetic reasons. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 400,000 breast implant procedures took place in 2017.

Two hospitals in the Louisville area have received low scores from a nonprofit that grades hospital safety ratings. Jewish Hospital and University of Louisville Hospital, or U of L Hospital, both received D grades from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade.

Both hospitals weren’t able to raise their scores this year, having maintained the D grade from 2016. This is unfortunate, because the medical care centers are trying to make their facility safer for their patients.

Before looking into the hospitals, let’s get a better understanding of Leapfrog and what they look into.