Danger: Hospital

Hospitals can be very dangerous places for patients, according to a KevinMD blog post by Robert Pearl, MD, earlier this week. Pearl outlined four risks that hospitals pose, along with their causes and possible solutions that could save lives. The risks are: psychological harm, physical harm, avoidable conditions during a hospital stay, and post-discharge complications. Reducing noise and illumination at night, ambulating patients daily, minimizing the use of sedatives and powerful pain medication, and high-quality alternatives to inpatient stay could cut these risks, according to Pearl.