The lack of a registration card has made it harder for manufacturers to send out recall information to parents as quickly as possible. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and manufacturers may announce a recall to the media, but very often, parents continue to remain unaware of recalls. With a product registration card, the company will have access to consumer information, and can contact them to inform them about a recall. This enhances the power of a recall, and increases parents response to a recall notice.

The cards will soon be required with a number of products including
• Play yards
• Cribs
• Toddler beds
• Swings
• Stationary activity centers
• Highchairs
• booster shares
• Bassinets
• Strollers
• Walkers
• Baby carriers
• Baby slings

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has failed to require such cards for all children's products. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has required product registration cards for child car safety seats for years now. That's the reason why child safety seat recalls have a better response rate than other recalls.

Indiana product liability attorneys, child safety groups and consumer advocates believe that extending the product registration card requirement to a larger number of children's products, will keep parents better informed and children safer. Parents are required to register the product with the manufacturer, and this will allow the company to immediately contact the parent if there's a recall.

Those results came out of a study that Leapfrog conducted to test how CPOE systems were able to detect errors. Leapfrog invited 214 hospitals to test their CPOE systems using a web simulation program it developed. The program showed that these systems missed an average of about 50% of routine medication orders and about a third of all potentially fatal orders. The tests were conducted between June of 2008 and January 2010.

According to Leapfrog, even though this was a simulated test, the results should be a warning to hospitals around the country that are using CPOE systems. In far too many hospitals, the systems are simply installed under the false belief that they will automatically catch medication errors and improve patient safety. The Leapfrog people are recommending that hospitals and CPOE vendors work together to ensure the continued effectiveness and efficacy of the CPOE systems.

However, the Leapfrog report also found that when the hospitals adjusted their protocols and processes, and then retested using the same simulation program, they saw a significant improvement in the performance of these systems. Leapfrog is recommending that every hospital that uses the systems include evaluation and testing as part of its overall quality control processes.

More hospitals are moving to install CPOE systems lured by the promise of federal financial assistance to hospitals that do so. Leapfrog is asking that federal legislation incorporate quality control monitoring of the systems in order to be eligible for financial aid.

The Indiana medical malpractice attorneys at Theodoros and Rooth represent injured victims of surgical errors, misdiagnoses, failure to diagnose, emergency room errors, medication errors and other forms of medical malpractice around Indiana.

Sepsis is a common bloodstream infection that's picked up at hospitals. These usually occur as a result of central line infections when proper sterility procedures are not maintained. Central lines are used to deliver nutrients and medicines quicker to a patient. This also means that when the lines are contaminated, infections also set in much quicker. Once the infection sets in, it leads to the formation of blood clots that restrict the flow of blood to the organs. Organ failure, and ultimately death, can result.

Scientists at the University Of Pittsburgh looked at hospital discharge data from seven different states, as well as emergency department visits between 2003 and 2007 from the National Ambulatory Care Survey. They found that out of a total of 8.6 million hospitalizations during this period of time, there were more than 2.2 million infections. Of these, 17% resulted in organ failure, which is often seen as a result of sepsis infections.

The researchers noted that black patients seemed to be at a 67% percent higher risk of sepsis hospitalizations, compared to non-Hispanic whites. Among blacks, the incidence of sepsis hospitalizations was about 9.4 per 1,000 persons. For whites, it was just 5.6 for every 1,000 persons. The survey also found that black patients had an 80% higher chance of dying from such infections.

So, what is causing this disproportionate rate of deadly sepsis infections in the black population? The researchers believe that black patients have higher incidences of diabetes and chronic kidney disease, both of which contribute to the development of sepsis. Other studies have indicated that black patients are more at risk for general infections, which increases their vulnerability to sepsis.

The researchers are recommending better management of diabetes and kidney disease in black patients, as well as better infection control, to reduce their sepsis risk.

TheIndiana medical malpractice lawyers at Theodoros and Rooth represent injured victims of misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose, emergency room errors, surgical room errors and other forms of medical malpractice around Indiana.

Researchers presented a video at the conference which showed a mouse with spinal cord injury regaining movement in its limbs, after receiving stem cell transplants from its hair follicles. The researchers are hailing this as a major breakthrough in the treatment of spinal cord injury using stem cell therapy.

There is hope that such therapy may also be used in humans with great success. The mice were treated with similar stem cells that were found in human hair follicles, and even these cell therapies were found to be equally beneficial. Researchers believe that there is enough reason to hope this stem cell therapy will benefit humans too.

Approximately, a quarter million Americans live with spinal cord injury. These occur most often in auto, truck and motorcycle accidents. In fact, auto accidents are the number one cause of spinal cord injury in the United States. However, these can also occur during slip and fall accidents, or as a result of violent assaults. Treatment for spinal cord injury has been painstakingly slow to develop, although advances in stem cell therapies hold much promise for Indiana personal injury lawyers.

Spinal cord injuries often leave their victims with one of two conditions - paraplegia and quadriplegia. A paraplegic will only have control over the lower limbs of his body, whereas a quadriplegic will have loss of movement in both upper and lower limbs. For many of these persons, the search for an effective and long-term cure, is elusive. The only hope comes from the use of stem cell transplants to rejuvenate and repair damaged nerve and tissue.

Scientists at the York Green Chemistry Center of Excellence at the University Of York Department Of Chemistry have found that when PVA of LCD TVs is cooled, and then dehydrated with ethanol, it produces a high surface area mesophorous material. This material can be used to great effect in biomedicine. When the researchers added silver nanoparticles, it enhanced the material’s antimicrobial properties. The resulting material was found to be strong enough to attack bacteria.

These silver nanoparticles can be used in hospitals and other settings that see substantial microbial activity. The compound has been found to be effective at destroying organisms that are commonly found in hospitals, like Staphylococcus aureu and Escherichia coli. The researchers now plan to compare the dehydrated PVA substance with commercial cleaning compounds in order to determine the effectiveness of the substance in attacking germs. They will then move on to seek regulatory approval.

What makes this research even more intriguing is the fact that there will be no shortage of affordable raw material for these compounds. LCDs are expected to be the fastest-growing electronic waste in the Western world, and in Europe alone, it is estimated that approximately 2.5 billion LCDs are nearing the end of their life. That means there will be plenty of raw material to manufacture anti-bacterial compounds.

The Indiana medical malpractice lawyers at Theodoros and Rooth represent victims of misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose, emergency room errors, surgical room errors and other forms of medical malpractice around Indiana.

Of course, any ban on the use of these systems will have to depend on how such a ban would affect trucking processes. The FMCSA does not want to hinder communication between truck drivers and the company, but it wants to minimize the kind of distractions that truck drivers are exposed to while driving.

An Indiana truck accident lawyers, we would also call for restrictions on the increasing use of computers by truck drivers these days. These computers are mounted on the dashboard of the trucks, and are used by truck drivers for a number of purposes. They help truckers stay in contact with the office, receive new dispatches and orders, and route directions. Truckers can log on to check e-mail, or to surf the Internet.

The trucking industry says that these computers have made trucking processes a lot easier, simpler and more efficient. While that may be true, these also increase the risk of truck accidents. Trucking companies recommend that their drivers never use computers while they are driving. If a truck driver needs to use a computer, he must pull over before he logs on.
However, just about any Indiana truck accident attorney will tell you that that is not always possible. Truckers are very often guilty of using these computers while driving, and this poses a serious risk to other motorists around.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a review of approximately 68 ambulatory surgical centers situated in three states. 32 centers were situated in Maryland, 16 were in North Carolina and 20 in the state of Oklahoma. The researchers focused on five separate areas to measure compliance rates. They looked at hand hygiene, environmental cleaning, equipment reprocessing, injection safety and medication handling and blood glucose monitoring equipment handling.

The researchers found that out of the 68 centers that were studied, 46 had lapses in at least one area. That makes it close to 68% of the centers with at least one lapse. 12 had lapses in three or more of these areas, making it approximately 18% of the facilities. Out of the 68 outpatient surgical centers, 39 centers went on to be cited for infection control lapses, while 20 went on to be cited for medication administration lapses.

The most common lapses were seen in failure to follow best practices for equipment reprocessing and handling of blood group glucose monitoring equipment, as well as the use of single dose medication vials for more than one patient.

We don't hear much about infection control at outpatient surgical centers, unless there's a major catastrophe like the one that occurred at a Las Vegas outpatient surgical center, which exposed thousands of patients to hepatitis and HIV. Hopefully, this report will lead to increased oversight of outpatient surgical centers to bring down these infection rates.

For years now, health safety groups have advocated a complete shift to electronic medical records. A system like this, it is believed and Indiana medical malpractice lawyers would agree, would substantially reduce the risk of human error contributing to patient fatalities. However, in far too many instances, there have been fatalities or serious medical injuries caused by the use of these systems.

The kinds of errors made, have differed greatly. In one particular instance, staff misread the fine print on a computer screen, and ended up dispensing more than 10 times the patient’s prescribed medication. As a result, the patient suffered a heart attack. In another instance, a patient died after there was a breakdown of the Computerized Provider Order Entry, which is a central function of the system.

There have been other reports of delayed information, misinformation, and delayed treatment linked to the use of electronic medical records, and with serious consequences. For instance, in one hospital, the computer failed to inform the staff that the patient had been shifted from the intensive care unit to a ward. Nurses were not aware of the patient’s presence in the ward, and failed to attend to him, even as he suffered seizures through the night.

Huffington Post’s Investigative Fund accessed data from the Food and Drug Administration, and found at least 237 reports of “adverse events” associated with the use of electronic medical records over the past two years. Most of these glitches resulted in wrong dosages of medications, while other software bugs delivered wrong test results.

What's worse is that these 237 events may be just the tip of the iceberg. Because the systems are so new, it's hard for hospitals to document how many of these errors have occurred. It doesn't help that the FDA lacks the resources necessary to ensure a smooth transition from paper records to electronic ones.

The federal administration is encouraging hospitals to speed up the shift from paper files to electronic records. The Obama administration is investing more than $27 billion in funding to encourage doctors and hospitals to phase in these systems. However, these funds will be available to those hospitals that can speed up the process of installing these systems. Critics believe that the system is being introduced far too quickly at many hospitals, and without sufficient staff training in the proper use of these systems.

As Indiana medical malpractice attorneys, we believe that speed in installing these systems without focusing on staff training, could actually end up causing more problems than they were meant to solve.

Nicole Manhart had a Pap smear performed in February of 1998 at the South Bend Medical Foundation.. The smear was wrongly interpreted by technicians at the hospital, as normal. In 1999, Manhart began to suffer severe bleeding. She initially attributed the bleeding to the use of birth-control pills. However, when the bleeding continued even after the birth control pills had been changed, she went in for a medical examination. An ultrasound revealed that she had a large tumor. By the time, Manhart had discovered the tumor, it was already in the third stage. By 2000, Manhart was dead.

This week, an Elkhart County Superior Court jury awarded Manhart's husband and her twin sons total damages of $1.2 million. Her husband Grant Manhart was awarded $200,000, while her twin sons were awarded $500,000 each. The trial centered on whether staff at South Bend failed to read the Pap smear results accurately.

However, an independent medical review board confirmed that the smear slide showed the presence of cancerous and abnormal cells.

The Indiana medical malpractice lawyers at Theodoros and Rooth represent injured victims of medical negligence, including surgical errors, misdiagnoses, failure to diagnose and emergency room errors, in medical malpractice litigation.

According to the report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, infections like postoperative blood stream infections and urinary tract infections associated with the use of catheters, have risen over the past year. There was an 8% rise in the case of bloodstream infections. These are serious infections that can lead to a condition called sepsis, marked by high fever, shivering and seizures. There's also been an increase of 6% in catheter-related urinary tract infections in hospitals. Postoperative pneumonia rates were down by 4%, and rates of bloodstream infections caused by placing of catheters in central veins, were the same as the year before.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, progress in controlling hospital-acquired infection rates has been too slow. The problem has been in getting hospitals, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to abandon their rigid approaches to infection control. Studies have shown that simple steps like hand hygiene, sterilization of equipment and use of checklists can prevent hospital-acquired infections. However, in many hospitals in Indiana and around the country, things are still done the way they were a decade ago.

This much is clear - If your hospital invests in sophisticated and aggressive new methods of infection control, you are less likely to have high infection rates in your facility, or come up against Indiana medical malpractice lawyers.

Those findings are corroborated by another analysis conducted by the Highway Loss Data Institute. This analysis showed that motorcycles that come equipped with antilock brakes had up to 22% fewer claims for damages, compared to motorcycles that did not come with these systems. Antilock brakes can reduce the risk of motorcycle crashes by releasing the brake pressure that can contribute to accidents when the motorcyclist applies the brakes. In motorcycles without antilock systems, braking can cause the wheels to lock, possibly contributing to a flip over with serious consequences.

The rising rate of motorcycle accident fatalities has been of concern to Indiana accident lawyers for a few years now. In 2008, the number of people killed in motorcycle accidents across the country crossed 5,000. That was the highest figure since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began recording such fatalities in 1975. This spike in motorcycle crash realities has continued even in spite of major strides made in controlling other highway accident fatality rates.

Helmet laws have helped prevent such accidents across several states. In Indiana however, motorcycle helmet laws only apply to motorcyclists below the age of 70. Approved helmets dramatically reduce the risk of the motorcyclist suffering a traumatic brain injury in an accident.

The Indiana auto accident attorneys at Theodoros and Rooth represent injured victims of car and motorcycle accidents, and help them recover rightful compensation for their losses.

Rush University Medical Center in Chicago initiated a pilot program in 2007. The program came in response to the discovery that readmissions were high because of several complex social factors. Patients who live alone, or lack emotional and physical support were much more likely to develop complications that required them be readmitted back into the hospital.

To tackle these issues, Rush University Medical Center established a program in which social workers would follow-up with patients after discharge. The social workers would focus on patients who had a high risk of readmission. This included those above 65 years of age, or those patients who were on seven or more medications or lived alone at home. Out of the 1,248 patients that were followed up via telephone, 60% were found to have confusion about the medications or had other such unresolved problems.

Post discharge care is a much neglected part of patient safety. The unfortunate fact is that too many patients suffer from a lack of knowledge about post-discharge care. There may be confusion about medications and side effects. Besides, elderly persons who live alone are much less likely to take their medications on time. Hospitals must be more proactive, and get involved in how their patients are faring after they leave the hospital.

The Indiana medical malpractice lawyers at Theodoros and Rooth represent injured victims of surgical errors, misdiagnoses, delayed diagnoses, emergency room errors, medication errors and other medical errors in the Lake County area, and across the state of Indiana.

The accident was set off by an earlier tractor-trailer accident which left traffic blocked. A tractor-trailer overturned, offloading cargo of more than 30,000 boxes of T-shirts across the highway. The driver in that accident told police later that he “felt something go wrong with his steering.” Investigators will obviously look into that account to determine if truck malfunction contributed to the accident.

Traffic on the highway was blocked after that accident. One truck failed to stop in time to avoid the blocked traffic It was immediately rear-ended by a tractor-trailer setting of a chain reaction, in which two other semi 18 wheelers also rear-ended the second tractor-trailer. At the end of the carnage, one of the tractor-trailer drivers, a Wisconsin man had been critically injured. He was trapped in his cab, and had to be extricated by emergency personnel. The driver unfortunately died a short while later at a local hospital. Two of the other drivers were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Indiana truck accident lawyers often see that chain reaction crashes are caused by at least one of the trucks driving at excessive speeds. Truck drivers must drive at the posted speed limit for 18 wheelers, and musty also consider existing traffic conditions. Unfortunately, very often truck drivers may be driving at high speeds, and may not be able to stop in time to avoid hitting a vehicle in front. Failure to judge traffic situations properly or speeding can constitute negligence, which can be the basis for a truck accident claim in Indiana.

The Indiana truck accident lawyers at Theodoros & Rooth help injured victims of semi truck and commercial truck accidents across the state of Indiana recover rightful compensation for their injuries.

The decision came in an appeal filed by an Atlanta hospital against a patient who was left severely injured and scarred by a plastic surgery procedure gone horribly wrong. The woman suffered open wounds on her face after she underwent a plastic surgery procedure performed to remove bags under eyes. The woman sued the hospital, and was awarded $1.15 million in non-economic damages. The hospital appealed that verdict, saying that it contradicted a cap on non-economic damages at $350,000 imposed by Georgia's legislators in 2005.

The hospital lost its appeal, and the matter ended up before the Supreme Court of Georgia. That court has decided that allowing a cap on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, is unconstitutional, and robs a citizen of his right to trial by jury.

As Indiana medical malpractice lawyers, we couldn't agree more. However, around the country, doctors and hospitals have had some amount of success in getting legislators to place limits on the amount of compensation injured victims of medical malpractice can recover. Such efforts have frequently ended up before the highest courts in these states. In January this year, the Illinois Supreme Court also struck down a cap on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, dealing a blow to the tort reform lobby in that state. Now, Georgia’s SC has followed. As Indiana medical malpractice attorneys, we hope that Indiana will be next.

The Indiana medical malpractice lawyers at Theodoros and Rooth represent injured victims of medical malpractice in Merrillville, Lake County, and across Indiana recover their rightful compensation.