Weekly Must Reads in Patient Safety (Sep 12, 2014)

News about the death of comedian John Rivers has dominated much of the healthcare news coverage. As with any celebrity incident, like this one, where there are still many questions the answers to which are not known or have not yet been made public, there has been a lot of speculation and conjecture, which may make it difficult to separate the sensationalist articles from the truly useful ones. So we offer a couple of articles that not only may help to shed light on what happened, but also offer good medical discussion and insight.

As well, we offer a couple of other “must” reads in patient safety.

 Joan Rivers’ Death

What Killed Joan Rivers? Piecing Together a Medical Mystery

Dr Karen Sibert offers a thoughtful discussion that raises questions and offers useful information about routine procedures. As she observes, “There are minor operations and procedures, but there are no minor anesthetics.  This could turn out to be the one lesson learned from the ongoing investigation into the death of comedian Joan Rivers.”

4 Lessons Learned from the Death of Joan Rivers

This article we co-authored with Kenneth P. Rothfield, M.D., M.B.A., Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology, Saint Agnes Hospital (Baltimore, MD). It offers 4 lessons to be learned from the death of Joan Rivers that can help others better prepare for safe medical procedures.

Risk Stratification of Sleep Apnea Patients – A Recipe for Death?

Dr Rothfield discusses updated practice guidelines for the perioperative management of obstructive sleep apnea.

New Guidelines Recommend Against Routine Use of Bed Rest in Pregnancy

In a new guideline, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine has recommended against the routine use of bed rest in pregnancy.

On September 23, there will be a guest post from a family physician which provides an interesting discussion and reflection on bed rest in pregnancy. Watch for it!

Comparing International Health Systems

Hats off to @ConversationEDU for this insightful info graph comparing international health systems. For those of us in the United States, this info graph shows that we are paying substantially more than others. Are we getting exponentially better results? What do you think?

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