My husband had surgery recently, and we were really impressed with the entire hospital staff. Everyone was really helpful, friendly, and efficient. Each person who saw my husband checked his identification wrist band, and everything seemed well organized. Though we had a good experience, I couldn’t help but think about how many individual people were involved in my husband’s care and how easily everything could have fallen apart. One little mistake or miscommunication could have changed the experience.

I know some people who don’t want to be hospitalized because of the possibility of contracting an infection. Well, it looks like hospitals have made some headway into reducing hospital infection rates, at least when it comes to invasive cases of MRSA, otherwise known as methicillin-resistant staph. A federal study looked at nine major metropolitan areas in the United States and concluded that MRSA rates declined about 16 percent from 2005 to 2008.

Last year a mentally ill patient in a medium-security ward at Oregon State Hospital lay dead in his hospital bed for several hours before anyone noticed. As a result, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a warning letter to the state indicating Oregon better shape up or risk getting sued by the DOJ. In addition, the State Office of Investigations and Training found the hospital was negligent in its care of the patient, Moises Perez.

A physician friend of mine once told me to avoid teaching hospitals in July. Why? Because that’s when teaching hospitals get a whole new roster of newbie medical residents. Now, I’m all about education and training, but do I want to be the guinea pig for these fresh-from-the-classroom residents? According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, this phenomenon is known as the “July effect.”

Oregonians who wish to investigate hospital infection rates can now do so, as the state is one of ten that now requires hospitals to publicly report them. Infections due to hospital exposure have risen across the nation, and Oregon officials are hoping that publicizing the rates will encourage hospitals to take measures to decrease the rate of infections and to educate patients.

The rates provide valuable information, but they shouldn’t be taken completely at face value. A small hospital with few infections might get an above-average rate based on the numbers. Also, some facilities specialize in patients with more critical cases, and those patients might be more susceptible to infections and other issues. Also, the data is reported by the hospitals themselves, so there is no third party to verify the accuracy of the rates.

The other day I read about a new system some local hospitals have been using in order to cut back on the number of hospital infections. It includes a lot of checks and balances and colleagues checking on one another. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well today I saw this article about how some VA hospitals are going to limit the types of surgeries that can be performed to hopefully decrease surgical deaths. Apparently some surgeries are too complicated to be performed at some VA hospitals. Patients requiring those surgeries will need to go elsewhere.

We often see reports of poor conditions in nursing homes, where patients are mistreated in a number of ways. Well, here’s a switch, as there was just an article in the Oregonian about a Canby nursing home that was found not liable in a wrongful death suit. The nursing home, Marquis Care at Hope Village, was accused of being responsible for the death of a wheelchair-bound patient, who fell out of his wheelchair in the nursing home and died four days later at a hospital.

Here in Portland, OR, there has been a lot of talk lately about the police force and how some officers handle themselves in confrontations with citizens. There have been a few shooting deaths here recently, and many citizens feel the police were too quick to fire their guns and that the deaths were avoidable. The police contend the actions taken were in line with police training. So far there is no general consensus, and relations between some of the police and people of Portland are a bit shaky.

Punitive damages are rare in nursing home cases in Pennsylvania, but last week a jury awarded punitive damages of $5 million against two nursing homes–Jeanes Hospital and Hillcrest Convalescent Home. The two facilities were accused of providing poor care to Joe N. Blango that caused bedsores that ultimately led to his death two years later. Blango’s widow had already been awarded $1 million in compensatory damages two weeks prior to winning the punitive damages.

An investigation is underway to determine whether or not MicroMedCardiovascular, maker of pediatric heart pumps, should have reported the death of a recipient of the pump. The FDA-approved pump, called DeBakey VAD Child Device was designed by Michael DeBakey, a well-known surgeon, and is the only pump of its kind. The manufacturer is required to report any deaths related to and/or caused by the device within 30 days.