Where can nurses go after they’ve been sanctioned elsewhere for misconduct? To California, it seems. The state’s Board of Registered Nursing launched a review, spurred on by a Los Angeles Times/Pro-Publica investigation last year, and discovered 3,500 nurses who have licenses in California even though they’ve lost their licenses in other states; 1,700 of these nurses currently have active licenses. In more than half of all cases, the sanctions were for serious violations such as “sexual abuse, neglect, rampant drug use and criminality.” [More]
medicine
Shuttered Tylenol Plant Had Troubling Pattern of Problems
By 6.24.10
Should Tylenol have been recalled sooner? FDA inspection reports going back to 2003 paint a queasy picture. [More]
More Moldy Barfy Benadryl And Tylenol Recalled
By 6.17.10
Oopsy-poopsies! Johnson and Johnson forgot to recall four “lots” of Benadryl Allergy Ultratabs and one lot of Extra Strength Tylenol Rapid Release Gels along with the dozens already recalled in Jan. J&J took the pills off the market after consumers complained they smelled moldy and in a few cases, caused vomiting and diarrhea. [More]
PediaCare Pulled From Stores, Victim Of Latest Tylenol Recall
By 6.1.10
Blacksmith Brands bought the PediaCare line of children’s cough and cold medicines from Johnson & Johnson last November. Unfortunately, the company hadn’t switched production over to a different facility, so last Friday it had to recall nearly 100,000 bottles that are guilty by association. There have been no complaints so far about the products, but when your manufacturer is under investigation by the FDA’s criminal division you tend to want to play it safe. [More]
Want More Lead Or Pesticide In Your Body? Try Dietary Supplements
By 5.26.10
Lead has a deservedly bad reputation when it comes to human health and development, but because it’s classified as a heavy metal it will always be kind of awesome. Well, to me. Pesticide, not so much. If you dislike ingesting either type of toxin, you might be interested in a new study being released today by the Government Accountability Office that found trace amounts of “lead and other contaminants” in every sample of 40 health supplements tested. [More]
Marijuana Dispensaries In Montana Firebombed
By 5.11.10
Some residents of Billings, Montana are pretty upset at the burgeoning medical marijuana industry there–CNN says the town of 100,000 has had about 90 applications for storefronts since the state legalized it in 2004, and that the businesses operate with little regulation. On consecutive mornings this past weekend, someone spraypainted “Not in our town” on the sides of two establishments, then threw rocks through the front doors followed by Molotov cocktails. And then they probably chilled out for a while. [More]
Use Doctor Finder To Prescreen Your Doctor
By 5.11.10
If you’re like most people, you pick a new doctor by going through an approved list provided by your insurer and selecting someone nearby. Doctor Finder from insiderpages.com hopes to make the process less random by providing reviews for doctors and dentists. You can search by zip code, then narrow down results by your insurer, distance, gender, specialty, language, and experience. [More]
Watch Out For Balance Billing With Your Medical Expenses
By 5.4.10
If you receive a medical bill dunning you for whatever your insurer didn’t pay, take a closer look before writing your check. The New York Times writes that although balance billing is a common practice, it’s not always legal, and you may be able to ignore it. [More]
Florida Urologist Won't Touch You If You Support Obamacare
By 4.5.10
A Florida urologist hoisted a sign outside his practice that reads “If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years,” the Miami Herald reports. [More]
Judge Says You Can't Patent Human Genes
By 3.30.10
A judge just invalidated the patents on two human genes whose mutations have been linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The genes were isolated by a biotech firm called Myriad Genetics, which argued that because it figured out how to isolate the genes outside of the human body then they were patentable. The judge called that “a ‘lawyer’s trick’ that circumvents the prohibition on the direct patenting of the DNA in our bodies.” The company sells a $3,000 cancer screening kit and has maintained a monopoly on the test because of the patents. [More]
Keep Your Hands On Your Urine If You Go To LabCorp
By 3.29.10
Mike was sent to LabCorp for some routine medical tests last week, and what he found was an understaffed, overcrowded dump where patients were arguing that their urine samples were missing, or in one instance stolen while the patient watched. This could just be one badly managed lab, but the Internet is swimming in LabCorp complaints around the country that all repeat the same problems. [More]
Interactive Chart Helps You Vet Health Supplements
By 3.23.10
Are you tired of forgetting whether you should add creatine or cinnamon to your kale smoothie? Do you worry that the milk thistle you’ve rubbed on your genitals isn’t helping? The “Snake Oil?” graphic at informationisbeautiful.net can help you out–it provides a graphical overview of 166 different health supplements and arranges them according to how much evidence there is that they actually work. [More]
CDC Will Probably Advise Flu Shots For Everyone This Fall
By 2.25.10
An advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control has recommended that everyone get flu vaccinations from now on, not just people in special higher risk groups. According to WebMD, “the CDC almost certainly will make universal flu vaccination official U.S. policy for this fall’s 2010-2011 flu season, as it consistently follows the advice of the panel of outside experts.” [More]
Whistleblower Nurse Acquitted
By 2.12.10
The West Texas nurse who went on trial this past Monday for reporting a doctor to the state board was found not guilty after just an hour of deliberation, reports the New York Times. The jurors who spoke to the Times after the case said it seemed pretty cut and dried to them. Now the nurse’s lawyers are focusing on their civil lawsuit against the county, the sherrif, the county attorney–who is described in the article as the surgeon’s personal attorney as well–and the hospital administrator who fired the nurse for going over his head. Hooray for whistleblowers! [More]
Pathologist: Herbal Remedies Can Be Deadly
By 2.10.10
In a paper published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, a forensic pathologist warns self-medicators to be careful when they’re taking unregulated herbal remedies. [More]
Whistleblower Nurse On Trial For Reporting Doctor To State Board
By 2.8.10
Update: After four days, the nurse was acquitted. [More]
Mass Homeopathic Overdose Planned For Tomorrow!
By 1.29.10
In a little less than 12 hours, over 300 skeptics throughout the U.K. will protest the homeopathic medicine industry there by deliberately overdosing on full bottles of homeopathic pills, which technically don’t contain any molecules of the active ingredient. The group’s goal is to highlight the fact that homeopathic cures are about as scientifically valid as your horoscope. I’m all for stunts, but don’t they know that they’ll likely suffer from the memory of an OD? That’s how this stuff works, you know. [More]
Protect Yourself From Unexpected Fees At Medical Clinics
By 1.27.10
An anonymous reader wrote to us to ask what he should do about unexpected bills from a medical clinic. He chose the clinic precisely because he can’t afford hospital bills in the hundreds of dollars, and was led to believe that there’d be no out-of-pocket cost. It turns out there was. [More]
