C-section rate of 30.5%!?!

Yep...check out the article "Contemporary cesarean delivery practice in the United States" just published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology by clicking here.

Break out the popcorn...coming to a theater near y'all...soon

Hat tip to Pharmalot.

Simon's Cat in the Box (not to be confused with Jack)

Hat tip to Sue P.

Medical errors and disclosure

From Dr. Chen's New York Times column:

Despite the best efforts of health care professionals, bad things can happen in hospitals. Up until more recently, when errors occurred, the scenario that played out was always the same. Clinicians, devastated but fearful of litigation, would shut down. Patients and their families, grieving but desperate to make sense of the event, would find that their doctors and nurses were no longer responsive or available. Eventually, the most important relationship in health care, that between patient and doctor, would cede to the most adversarial one, that between plaintiff and defendant.
...
“Everybody worries that disclosure will lead to liability going through the roof,” said Dr. Allen Kachalia, lead author and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “But here’s one institution that set up their disclosure program privately and independently, helped their patients avoid using the courts and tort system, and did not sustain the skyrocketing claims and costs that others might have predicted.”

Click here to access Dr. Chen's column. Click here to access "Liability Claims and Costs Before and After Implementation of a Medical Error Disclosure Program" (abstract) in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Change Board Recertification"

Have y'all heard of this group?  If not, click here to check it out.  Interesting...

AMA publishes info on malpractice claims for 2007-2008

 Can you guess which specialty is sued most often?  Click here to access AMA's press release on this report.

MA gift ban law intact?

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog's posting on this bill.

Nurse fired because of Facebook posting