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How Is the NFL Handling Its Concussion Problem? A Look at the Statistics

April 8, 2019AdminPatient SafetyLeave a Comment

Football is a dangerous sport. Players across the nation of all ages and levels of talent suffer injuries every day, from sprained ankles and pulled muscles to serious concussions, torn ligaments and tendons, and shattered bones. Fortunately, for the past several years, teams and leagues have made conscious efforts to decrease the number of player concussions. During the 2013 year, the NFL reported that the league saw a drop in concussions by 13 percent.

During the preseason and regular season in 2013, a total of 228 players got concussed. In 2012, by comparison, 261 players suffered concussions. Helmet to helmet contact, responsible for 53 percent of concussions in 2012, was responsible for less than half of concussions in the 2013 season. The NFL believes this improvement stems from a number of rule changes enacted to protect players from injury. Striking another player with the helmet can now be penalized, and intentionally striking another player in the head with the helmet, known as targeting, can result in an ejection from the game, The stiffer penalties and changes in culture – along with a growing understanding of the dangers of concussions – have led to positive adjustments that will hopefully continue.

Another potential method of protecting players from concussions has also appeared on the scene: head impact sensors. These devices can be used inside the helmet (and inside the mouth guard) to measure the force from a blow to the head. Developers hope the sensors can contribute to more sensitive safety engineering.

Laws of the Game: FIFA the Latest Sports Organization to Face Concussion Suit

March 21, 2019AdminGeneralLeave a Comment

On August 27, 2014, a coalition of soccer players and their parents initiated a class-action lawsuit against FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association). In the complaint, the plaintiffs charge the international soccer governing body of neglecting players in the monitoring and treatment of head injuries sustained during games.

Rather than pursuing financial compensation, the lawsuit seeks to change specific rules within the sport, including how many times players may “head the ball” during a match and how teams manage substitute players for individuals under examinations for head injuries.

The filing against FIFA notes high school soccer players suffer a disproportionate number of concussions compared to wrestling, softball, basketball, and baseball combined, representing nearly 50,000 injuries in 2010. Highly publicized head injuries during the World Cup event shed even greater light on the need for changes in rules and regulations within the sport.

The suit represents the most recent in a spate of concussion related cases, which have affected the NCAA, NHL, and NFL.

Steps to Take after Sustaining a Sports Related Concussion

Regardless of the rules, players of any sport should have the right to take proper measures after a head injury to get the treatment they need. When colliding with a ball, player, or other structure during play, take the following actions to protect yourself physically and legally:

Get immediate medical treatment. If you or a loved one are experiencing symptoms of a concussion, cease playing immediately and seek out the services of a physician.
Make a record. Retain any evidence that may have contributed to the injury, or ask a parent or other trusted individual to do this for you.
Watch for lasting effects. If a head injury continues to cause problems long after it happens, keep track of these issues and consider contacting a personal injury attorney.

Are Hospital Errors Really Becoming Less Common?

March 16, 2019AdminMedical MalpracticeLeave a Comment

Given the unbearable costs hospital errors exact on our nation’s sick and injured population every year, it’s sometimes hard to muster optimism. However, a December 2014 report published by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests that medical workers and hospital safety experts may finally be winning the battle – or at least turning the tide.

The report said that “hospital acquired conditions” (e.g. staph infections caught in a hospital ER) declined over a three year period by 17 percent.
Medical errors, meanwhile, declined in practically every category.
IV blood infections, for instance, declined by almost 50 percent.
Bedsore ulcers — a plague that visits bedridden patients who are not moved frequently enough — declined by 20 percent.
Pharmaceutical errors also declined by nearly 20 percent.

The timeframe of the report covers 2010 to 2013.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine found that such errors killed approximately 98,000 people a year in the United States. Later analysis determined that number could be much higher.

Some analysts credit the decrease in errors to the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”), which incentivizes hospitals through the “Partnership for Patients” program. This policy has been associated with a reduction in re-admissions (by 18 percent as of early 2014). A pilot program run at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City found that a similar incentive system led to a drastic cut in re-admissions by over 40 percent.

However, an analysis published in 2012 in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that government incentives do not necessarily correlate with decline in certain hospital infections.

Hopefully, researchers will analyze this progress more carefully and help us uncover how to make hospitals safer and less error-prone.

Compound Pharmaceuticals: A Surprising Effect on Military Budget?

February 13, 2019AdminMedicationsLeave a Comment

Over the past several years, this blog has covered the under-reported but nevertheless widespread dangers associated with compound pharmacies.

A new published analysis suggests that compound pharmaceuticals may have cost the military’s Tricare program massively, creating a multi-billion dollar budget hole.

Compound pharmacies in theory sound excellent and effective. They merge multiple medicines to develop drugs that might not be available easily in commercial form. Unfortunately, the industry, due perhaps to lack of regulation, has been at the center of a serious investigation regarding improper marketing and pricing schemes.

Several years ago, private healthcare companies worked hard to eliminate or reduce this aggressive marketing, but military healthcare affiliates have just recently discovered that they have their own compound pharmacy problem. According to analysis, in 2010, the military spent $6.6 billion on pharmacy costs; only $23 million of that went to compound drugs. By 2015, the compound drug costs for Tricare (a military healthcare program) blossomed explosively to $1.7 billion. That constitutes a nearly thousand-fold increase in cost in just five years!

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Resource Management, Jon Rychalski said “it’s really unheard of to see this kind of a spike, and it threatens our program.” Noting that the average Tricare cost for compound drugs bumped from $192 to an astonishing $2,595, Rychalski observed that “unscrupulous people [are] out there taking advantage of this, heavily marketing in many different ways.”

Four defense committees in Congress are now well aware of these escalating drug costs — and obviously motivated to bring costs down to more reasonable levels — but policymakers still don’t know how, exactly, to get the Tricare budget under control.