Blog Archive

When’s the last time your elderly parents had an eye exam? If it’s been more than a year, it’s time for a checkup, Emily Chew, M.D., a doctor with the National Eye Institute, reminds us in Prevention magazine. And the checkup might save their vision. Actress Dame Judi Dench recently revealed that she has age-related... Read more

Pneumonia can sneak up on elderly people and wreak life-threatening havoc before family members recognize the need for hospital care, warns Nabin Sapkota, M.D., a hospitalist in Nebraska. That’s because the disease shows up differently in older people than in younger ones. In an article at the website for the newspaper The Columbus Telegram, Sapkota... Read more

When you check out of a hospital, the last thing you want to do is check right back in—especially for something preventable. But too often, that’s what happens. Hospital readmission has become such a problem that facilities are experimenting with new discharge methods, and Medicare plans to start penalizing hospitals that have a lot of... Read more

Ideally, the hospital is where germs go to die. In reality, that doesn’t always happen, and it becomes a breeding ground instead. Germs hop from hand to hand to nose to mouth to wound… Yikes. Because of this, nurses and doctors are supposed to wash their hands before treating you. But as a patient—or a... Read more