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There have been scant opportunities for optimism in the past year. COVID-19 has taken so much from us – our loved ones, our economic security, our sense of community. One positive in the midst of this chaos came in the form of an underreported policy change from HHS. On January 14, Admiral Brett Giroir of HHS announced relaxation of restrictions around prescribers ability to provide medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD). Specifically, the new rule removed the need for providers to obtain an X-waiver from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to prescribe buprenorphine.
The X-waiver represents an enormous barrier to effectively addressing the nation s opioid use emergency. With over 83,000 deaths from opioid overdoses from June 2019 to June 2020 alone, the crisis represents a huge public health challenge. COVID-19 has only exacerbated this situation, with increases in depression, loneliness, and substance use. As people deal w
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A 36-year-old woman presents to a hospital wound care department in Japan, sometime after an accident where she lost the tip of her right third finger the finger was crushed in a thick iron door during her shift at a restaurant, and the amputated part was not able to be recovered.
She notes that when the injury occurred, she had first visited the emergency department of another general hospital, but the plastic surgeon there recommended surgical reconstruction, and the patient decided to opt instead for conservative management.
The patient was a smoker, with an unremarkable medical history.
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On Tuesday, Iowa s highest court will hear oral arguments in a negligent credentialing case brought against a hospital in Cedar Rapids. The suit has garnered the attention of the American Medical Association (AMA) due to its potential impact on other providers.
The negligence suit was originally filed in 2016 by Roxanne Rieder and her husband, Tony. The Rieders detail in court documents that Roxanne experienced permanent impairment and severe pain following spine surgery performed at Mercy Medical Center by a credentialed physician there in 2015. Though the Rieders resolved and dismissed their claims against the physician, David Segal, MD, and other defendants in the case in 2018, they continue to pursue a negligent credentialing claim against Mercy.