Woodside Family Practice » Medical Technician

Failure to Begin Treatment of a Serious Medical Condition

salsabilahanun — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:07:30 +0000

Hospital malpractice can occur when a doctor or medical staff member provides negligent treatment or care from which the patient suffers harm. There are around 225,000 people in the US who die every year from medical errors and malpractice. Also, it is important to remember that medical malpractice does not always have to involve a doctor. Malpractice can occur from any medical professional who is treating a patient. These medical professionals can include nurses and pharmacists, as well as medical technicians, and other members of the hospital’s staff.

The most common forms of medical malpractice include:

·         The failure of medical staff to properly diagnose a serious illness or medical condition

·         The failure of medical staff to begin the treatment of a disease or medical condition

·         Medical staff failing to properly treat a serious condition

·         Mistakes arising during and after surgery, including complications from anesthesia

·         Mistakes involving patient prescriptions

Failure to Properly Diagnose or Misdiagnosing a Serious Medical Condition

The failure to properly diagnose or misdiagnosing a serious medical condition or illness can result in the death of a patient. The Institute of Medicine estimates that there are about 225,000 people who die each year from various medical mistakes. Many of these deaths are preventable as long as the patient was properly diagnosed when they arrived at the hospital.

Failure to Begin Treatment or Properly Treat a Serious Illness

Many times, the patient receives a diagnosis, but they are given the wrong treatment plan, or there is a delay in administering a treatment plan. These mistakes can arise when the hospital staff doesn’t:

·         Run the correct diagnostic tests

·         Follow the physician’s treatment plan

·         Administer the correct medication

·         Properly monitor the patient

Surgical Errors and Complications from Anesthesia

There is never a surgery that is entirely risk free. But, even with these risks, we have faith that our surgeons are the best at what they do and are educated and highly skilled. Unfortunately, there are mistakes that happen during surgery and no matter what the reasons are for the mistake, it is completely unacceptable. The most common mistakes that occur during or after surgery include:

·         Surgical equipment, such as sponges or rags, that are left inside a patient

·         The accidental cutting or puncturing of a nerve, organ or artery during the surgery

·         Performing the incorrect surgery or making an incision in a wrong location on the patient’s body

·         Performing a surgery that is unapproved and/or unnecessary

·         Unprofessional or careless surgical techniques

·         Complications from anesthesia, stemming from incorrect dosage and administration, to side effects such as stroke or heart attack

Prescription Errors

Being given the wrong prescription can have life-threatening side effects. Some common mistakes involving prescriptions include:

·         The patient being prescribed the wrong medication or dosage

·         The doctor prescribing the patient a medication that has negative interactions with the medication that the patient is currently taking

·         Inexperienced or overworked pharmacists filling the wrong prescription, using the wrong drug, or giving the patient the wrong instructions for taking the medication

The number of people injured each year by the negligence or oversight of our medical professionals is staggering.

Research Report on Chinese Medical Industry, 2009

salsabilahanun — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:37:29 +0000

In China, the medical organizations refer to the organizations received Practice License of Medical Institution, mainly including the specialized diagnostic and curative hospitals, health centers, convalescent hospitals, out-patient clinics, clinics, hygiene centers and first-aid stations etc.

The medical organizations in China belong to service industry, directly faced to numerous consumers and supervised by medical executive departments of Chinese government. The regional distributions of Chinese hygiene resources are comparatively balanced, regional distribution disparity mainly showing in the levels of medical organizations, asset scales, revenues and expenditures, private medical organization distribution and foreign funded medical distribution, reflecting the regional economic development differences. Chinese medical industry is mainly concentrated in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong and Zhejiang, accounting for most hygiene resources and higher level technologies.

In 2008, the total expenditures of Chinese medical industry were 1.22 trillion Yuan (174 billion USD), increasing by 8.2% of last year. The expenditures per capita were 915 Yuan (130 USD).



By the end of 2008, Chinese health organizations were about 300 thousand, in which hospitals were 19,701 (13,111 public hospitals), 40 thousand clinics, 28 thousand community health service centers, 3,020 maternity and child care centers, 3,560 centers for disease control and prevention and 2,591 health monitoring institutions. Compared with last year, the health organizations were increased by two thousand, with the increased numbers of community health service centers and health monitoring institutions and the reduction in hospitals, town clinics, maternity and child care centers and centers for disease control and prevention.



By the end of 2008, the total beds of Chinese medical organizations were 3.97 million, up by year on year 7.2%. Chinese medical technicians were 4.92 million, including 2.05 million licensed assistant doctors and registered nurses of 1.62 million, rising by 130 thousand of Chinese medical technicians, 40 thousand of licensed assistant doctors and 80 thousand of registered nurses compared with the year of 2007. The licensed assistant doctor number per one thousand was increased from 1.54 in 2007 to 1.55 in 2008, as well as the registered nurse number from 1.18 to 1.22. The county doctors and health workers were 1.06 per one thousand agricultural populations.



In 2008, it was predicted that the outpatient visits in Chinese hospitals reached to 1.69 billion man-times, including 1.53 billion man-times in public hospitals, accounting for 90.5%. The inpatient number was 68 million, including 62.3 million in public hospitals, accounting for 91.5%.



For a long time, Chinese medical systems were state-governed, lack of competition and vigor, co-existences of shortage and surplus in resource allocation, low service quality and inefficiency. Thus, the reforms in medical systems fell far behind than other industries. Since, 2000, Chinese government approved the guidelines of medical system reforms and carried out classified regulation in the medical organizations. The perspectives of medical organization market came into open.



Because of the promising perspectives, Chinese private and joint hospitals were established recently.

Chinese government guided and encouraged the entry of private and other assets into medical organizations by two means: first, asset acquisition, that is the participation of property right and operation means reforms in public hospitals, the acquisition of original stored assets; second, the added investment, that is the direct participation in the investment in the medical industry, constructions and operations, in which asset acquisition accounted for the most.

It is a long time to receive profits in a newly built hospital, at least five years. But if you merged with the present hospitals, the time will be shortened sharply, some of which will keep balance in the revenues and expenditures because of the fixed doctors, nurses and patients in the former hospitals.

The works of Chinese medical service systems will be divided rationally in the future among the community health service centers, comprehensive hospitals and the specialized hospitals, with the community health service centers specializing in the prevention, health care, health education, birth control and easily diagnose chronic disease treatment and rehabilitation of common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases, the comprehensive hospitals and the specialized hospitals specializing in the disease diagnostics. The large hospitals will mainly diagnose the critical illness and difficult or complicated illness and develop education and research combining clinical experiments.

More following information can be obtained in this report:

- Development of Chinese Medical Industry

- Sub-sectors of Chinese Medical Industry

-Value Chains of Chinese Medical Service Industry

- Competitions of Chinese Medical Industry

- Investment Opportunities of Chinese Medical Industry

- Trends of Chinese Medical Industry

- Influences of International Financial Crisis on Chinese Medical Industry

If you are interested in this report, please visit Research Report on Chinese Medical Industry, 2009

Clinical Laboratory Technician

salsabilahanun — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:18:53 +0000

Clinical laboratory technicians are referred to as clinical laboratory scientist or medical technologist. These are also known as medical technicians. They are there to examine and analyze body fluids and cells. They look for bacteria, virus and other microorganisms; examine the chemical content of fluids and match blood for transfusion and also test for the drug levels in the blood that shao how a patient is responding to the treatment. They make the use of microscope cells and other sophisticated laboratory equipments. They also use automated and computerized instruments capable of performing number of tests simultaneously. After examining a specimen, they analyze the results and dispatch them to physicians.

Skills

Clinical lab technicians are frequently expected to have knowledge in biology, chemistry and medicine. They must also be good at documentation. They must be good in vision and color blindness is not a good factor for them in this job. They must be comfortable with the technology and computer knowledge is must for them.

Education

Medical technicians generally have associates degree from a junior or community college or a certificate from a hospital or technical school.

Outlook

There are counteracting factors here. On the one hand advents in latest technology are eliminating some clinical technician positions, but an aging population is creating more work for clinical labs. Excellent job opportunities are expected in it. According to a survey, it was found that clinical laboratory technology and technicians held out jobs amounting to 3, 19,000 in 2006.

Advancement

Technicians can advance and become technologist by the further studies and experience. Technologist may advance to the supervisory positions in the laboratory or may become chief medical or manager in the clinical laboratory.

Working conditions

The working conditions of the technician depend upon their specialty. They sit for much of a day. Their work as compared to other similar cases is much in detailed. The technicians have rare and minimal contact with the patients. Their tasks are generally routine activities, but they perform a wide range of test. They work under the supervision of several people. They usually work forty hours a week. They are also required to wear uniform and wear protective clothing during there job. The technicians working in a hospital may require to work sometimes on evenings or on weekends.

Earnings and benefits

Clinical laboratory technicians earn a median salary of around $30,840 annually. The technicians who are more experienced can get more. The other benefits are paid holidays and vacations. Some workers also receive pension plans.