According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more that 700,000 emergency room visits each year are attributed to adverse drug events. Because medication errors can result in severe consequences for patients, there are several steps that a health care practitioner in Arkansas must take before administering medication. First, anyone giving out medication must confirm the identity of the patient receiving it. This may be done by confirming the patient's name or date of birth.
Feds mandate electronic logging of driving hours for truckers
New rules about how commercial bus and truck drivers record their hours spent on the road released by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration mark the entry of regulations into the digital age. In an effort to control trucker fatigue, authorities have required drivers in Arkansas and elsewhere to maintain paper logs of their hours behind the wheel since the 1930s. Safety advocates, however, have long criticized the failings of paper records, claiming they are easy to alter if an accident investigation takes place.
Prostate screenings down, but cancer is not
Arkansas men may be choosing to decline the prostate-specific antigen tests based on a recommendation in 2012 from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. According to the task force, the test was detecting too many slow-growing cancers that posed little risk to patients who then underwent unnecessary procedures such as radiation treatment and surgery.
