Posts by Crandall & Pera Law, LLC

Medicare has rated three hospitals throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania some of the worst facilities to receive hip and knee replacements, according to an NBC News article.  Out of nearly 200 hospitals analyzed, 95 were found to have elderly patients more likely to suffer significant setbacks. The nine rated to have the highest amount of readmissions…

A physical therapy center in southern Indiana will begin offering free Pilates classes this week for breast cancer survivors to help women bounce back from the physical and emotional fallout from the disease, according to an article in the Courier-Journal.  Shoulder problems, physical imbalances, muscle tightness and reduced strength are among the health issues that…

Many male patients suffering from chronic pelvic pain are being denied treatment because of prohibitions placed on physicians by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, according to a recent article in The New York Times.  On Sept. 12, the ABOG released a newly stringent and explicit statement of what its members could not do.…

Extended use of certain acid-suppressing drugs may be leading to an increase in anemia, neurological problems, or dementia, according to a new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.  People who use proton-pump inhibitors (P.P.I.’s) and histamine 2 receptor antagonists, sold under brand names like Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium, for two years or…

Prescription rates for powerful opioid pain pills that have high potential for abuse are high even for hospital patients who have not undergone surgery, according to a new study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.  More than 50 percent of patients studied who did not have surgery were prescribed an opioid, a type of…

A new bill passed by Congress regarding stricter regulations for compounding pharmacies may actually be doing less to keep patients safer, according to ABC News.  The Drug Quality and Security Act was passed to prevent a repeat of what officials have called the “largest documented healthcare-related outbreak in the United States,” when a New England…

Pregnant women may have an increased risk of preterm delivery when exposed to a group of hormone-mimicking chemicals called phthalates, according to a new study in JAMA Pediatrics. Women who were found to have the highest levels of phthalate metabolites in their urine had a risk of preterm birth – an infant born before 37…

An innovative experiment aiming to preserve the lungs of donors that die outside of a hospital could help ease the viable organ shortage nationwide, according to NBC News Health. Currently, the U.S. does not have a system to recover organs quickly enough from registered organ donors who die unexpectedly, even though the air left inside…

Many high-risk devices that are widely used in the medical community have never been subjected to the rigorous premarket approval process the Food and Drug Administration routinely requires for new drugs, according to The New York Times. Researchers fear that nearly a dozen medical devices, including external cardiac compressors, may never be thoroughly evaluated by…

Delays in routine screening blood tests given to newborns to check for several dozen medical disorders are causing babies to die or become permanently disabled nationwide, according to a report in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  “Heel prick” tests have been performed for 50 years as a means to identify disorders in time to improve or save…