Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Automatic Flushing Toilets are Safety Hazard

A Texas Hospital had a women come into the ED unaware of her pregancy and impending birth. She went to the public restroom at the hospital and suddenly delivered an infant into a toilet. The auto-flushing mechanism activated when the woman stood up and the suction began to pull the baby into the commode. Fortunately, medical staff responded, cut the umbilical cord and pulled the infant out. There were no serous injuries to the baby and both mom and baby are doing fine. The hospital has subsequently turned off the auto flushing feature for all toilets.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Cell Phone Photos and Patient Privacy

If your hospital doesn’t have a policy for cell phone photography in the building, it may be time. Cases continue to pop up where visitors and workers snap pictures using their cell phone cameras.

Last month, the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, NM, fired two employees for allegedly taking close-up photos of patient injuries and then posting them on a MySpace Web page, the Associated Press reported. A hospital manager received a tip about the photos and began an investigation. Hospital officials personally oversaw the removal of the photos from the employees’ cell phones and the MySpace page, according to the Associated Press. The faces and personal features of the patients in the photos had been electronically removed before the pictures were posted. Other employees who knew of the photos were disciplined for not bringing the matter to the hospital’s attention.