safety

*Note: To watch Episode #10 of  “Navigator Nuggets”, my weekly Facebook Live show (Mondays 8pm ET) where we had an informative discussion on this topic, click here.       In December 2017, a 75-year-old woman in stable condition recovering from a brain bleed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center died after a nurse committed a

There’s no place like home, but did you know that your senior parent’s home may be one of the most unsafe places? The National Safety Council (NSC) statistics indicate that about 1.4 million people 65 years of age and older are treated in emergency rooms each year for injuries associated with consumer products. The NSC

Have you ever heard the saying, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you?” It’s sometimes used to glorify the “ignorance is bliss” mentality. The idea is that we can’t worry about issues if we don’t know about them. It is also used to justify lying by omission, the act of leaving out “small details” to

I live in a metropolitan area with several renowned academic medical centers and high-quality community hospitals. When my mother was diagnosed with leukemia, she received top-notch care at a local university hospital’s cancer center. My father had open heart surgery at a facility with an award-winning cardiac surgery department. There’s a peace of mind associated

My father was college-educated and had no obvious difficulty understanding medical advice in his earlier years. However, when he began to develop dementia there was a very noticeable change in his intellectual capacity. When I accompanied him to doctor visits, I noticed that not only did he struggle with understanding his instructions, he was also

There have been numerous changes to the way health care is delivered in the United States. Regulatory agencies, electronic medical records and insurance companies have altered the way physicians practice medicine. One of the unfortunate consequences has been the erosion of the doctor-patient relationship. Many patients don’t trust their doctors anymore. With less time for

My father had several chronic health conditions and was cared for by multiple physicians. In addition to his primary care physician, he saw a cardiologist for hypertension and heart disease, a nephrologist for end stage renal disease, a neurologist for dementia and unexplained weakness, and a psychiatrist for depression. When hospitalized, he was typically cared for

My father loved cars and he enjoyed driving. I have fond memories of family road trips in the station wagon as a young child, and in his Chevy Suburban during my adolescent years. But the vehicle he treasured the most was a used Mercedes Benz he purchased in the ‘80s. Even though it required diesel