Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center located in Syracuse, New York, recently began using disposable blood pressure cuffs manufactured by Skaneateles-based Welch Allyn, in order to reduce the risk of infection. St. Joseph’s is the first hospital in Upstate New York to make the switch to the “Flexiport,” which should streamline the manner in which hospitals measure vital signs, increase efficiency, and decrease incidents of hospital negligence and medical malpractice.

In the usual case, a hospital will have on hand many different size blood pressure cuffs that are connected through a maze of tubes to a manual or electronic blood pressure device. When checking blood pressure, a nurse or doctor would have to search for the right size cuff in order to check pressure. With the Flexiport system, each admitted patient will be issued a cuff with his or her name on it which, through a patented connector, can be attached to any blood pressure device in the hospital. Personalized cuffs will minimize the spread of bacteria between patients.

Blood pressure is the amount of pressure that blood exerts on the walls of arteries. High blood pressure can be a sign of heart disease or an impending heart attack. Low blood pressure can be a sign of hemorrhaging, internal bleeding, or septic shock.
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The building formerly occupied by The Hartford Financial Services Group has been sold to St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center for $3,400,000. According to the Utica Observer Dispatch, upon receipt of approval from the New York State Department of Health, the building will undergo extensive renovations, including space for an urgent care facility, physician office space, physical therapy operations, rehabilitative therapy operations, and on outpatient care and radiology program.

The St. Elizabeth’s urgent care facility is the fifth such facility slated for the Mohawk Valley. Already open include an urgent care center at the Faxton campus of Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare, an urgent care center at Slocum-Dickson, Independent Physicians Urgent Care and Ridge Mills Medical Center Urgent Care.

Urgent care facilities provide important services to Utica-area residents needing treatment for non-life threatening injuries, including abdominal pain, foreign objects in the eye, fractures, minor injuries, sore throat, stitches and x-rays. You should go directly to an emergency room if you have suffered amputation of a body part, have a very high fever, are choking, have been electrocutes, have an open or displaced fracture, have lost consciousness, are in labor, or are suffering from a stroke or heart attack.
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On February 24, 2009, Elliot Cohen, M.D., a Watertown, New York doctor who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology had his license suspended for three months by the New York State Department of Health Office of Professional Medical Conduct (“OPMC”). OPMC concluded that Dr. Cohen “committed professional misconduct by prescribing medications over the internet to persons the respondent never examined.”

The suspension followed OPMC’s review of the Watertown doctor’s prescription of Viagra, Levitra and amoxicillin to a company in North Carolina. Dr. Cohen charged a fee for the medications.
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