Wisconsin State Journal

FULL FORECAST

Stories

Day 1

A common medical mistake Tubing misconnections can allow health workers to deliver drugs the wrong way and harm patients. More... How many medical errors? Nobody knows because most of the country's reporting system is voluntary and anonymous. More... Color-coded chaos Hospitals can't agree on what different colored warning labels mean and each hospital uses the labels differently. And if workers get confused, patients could be harmed. More... Living, or wanting to die, after a mistake Health care workers lives are effected by errors too. More... How tubes get mixed up A connector allows tubes to hook up in ways that can be dangerous. More... Otis Williams He survived cancer but a medical mistake crippled him. More... Jasmine Gant One-year anniversary marks birth and death for grandmother raising daughter's child. More... Dolores Finnander She went in to figure out what was causing her back pain and died eight hours later. More...

Day 2

Getting in the way of patient safety Even simple solutions can take a long time. More... Why rescues can go really wrong Bureaucracy stall defibrillator solution offered by two Madison nurses. More... A tough medical challenge, met One company has designed special tubing to feed babies. With this system, health care workers can't accidentally give liquid food to babies through an IV line. More...

Day 3

Making care safer Hospitals have new devices and systems to make treatment safer. But sometimes solutions can create their own problems. More... Doctors are putting us to sleep more safely Anesthesiologists have tackled their tubing problems with color coded hoses and fittings that don't allow the wrong gas to hook up to the machine. But some caution that any safety system can be defeated. More...

Day 4

Is your nurse on hour 16? Research says tired nurses make more mistakes. Some regulators are considering a proposal that would ban nurses from working more than 12 hours in a row. More... Reisdents no longer residing at the hospital Doctors-in-training can't work more than 80 hours a week. The national limit was put in place to prevent over-worked residents from making potentially fatal errors. But some say it's just taking longer to train doctors now. More...

Day 5

Don't be a passive patient Question your doctors, nurses and other caregivers, experts say. More... Resource Guide

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