Profession
Study quantifies deaths linked to serial-killer medical professionals
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 22, 2007
More than 2,100 suspicious hospital deaths around the world have been linked to 54 serial-killer doctors and nurses since 1970, according to a Journal of Forensic Sciences' study co-authored by Kenneth W. Kizer, MD, former head of the Veterans Health Administration. Researchers argue that a federal law is needed to shield hospital administrators from being sued if they share concerns about suspicious health professionals who apply for other jobs.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania adopted such laws after a jury convicted a nurse, Charles Cullen, of murdering as many as 40 patients over the course of 16 years in those two states. He was sentenced to multiple life sentences last year. The study's authors also call on hospitals to track patient deaths and illnesses to better detect potential wrongdoing and limit potentially lethal medications to single-dose formulations to make wrongdoing more detectable.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/01/22/prbf0122.htm.
