The Dix Hills doctor <"http://www.yourlawyer.com/practice_areas/medical_malpractice">medical malpractice case is cytotec prescription cost causing people to rethink their relationship with health care providers.  In the cytotec prescription cost wake of the Dix Hills doctor scandal, patients are beginning to cytotec prescription cost question healthcare professionals about their safety and contamination prevention practices where cytotec prescription cost syringes and needles are concerned.  Who can blame them?

Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, the cytotec prescription cost Dix Hills doctor who exposed patients to blood-borne pathogen infections, including Hepatitis C and cytotec prescription cost B and HIV/AIDS as a cytotec prescription cost result of reusing syringes, is an anesthesiologist who practices at the cytotec prescription cost Pain Care Center of Long Island and has admitting privileges at the cytotec prescription cost New Island Hospital in Bethpage, the North Shore University Hospital in Plainview, and cytotec prescription cost the Long Island SurgiCenter in Melville.  The New York State Department of Health has notified hundreds of Finkelstein’s patients that they could be at risk for infectious diseases. 

People generally assume every health care professional follows professional protocols; Finkelstein has cytotec prescription cost changed that.  With blood, potential exists for cytotec prescription cost disease transmission if sterile conditions do not exist.  Patients can cytotec prescription cost cut risks by confirming healthcare professionals washed their hands, that cytotec prescription cost all medical staff are wearing protective gloves, and that needles and cytotec prescription cost syringes are used only once.  Patients should not be cytotec prescription cost afraid to ask if medication being drawn by a needle and cytotec prescription cost syringe is coming from a single-dose vial, a factor that reduces the cytotec prescription cost risk of blood-borne disease transmission.  Multi-dose vials of medication, which are cytotec prescription cost an issue in the Finkelstein case, are routinely used in all types of medical care settings and cytotec prescription cost are safe when proper infection control procedures are used.  However, if procedures are cytotec prescription cost sloppy -as they were in the case of the Dix Hills doctor – multi-dose vials can become a transmission source to subsequent patient.  When multi-dose vials are cytotec prescription cost used, confirm the use of germ-killing alcohol to swab a vial’s rubber top before a needle is placed inside the vial.  Ask questions before medications are cytotec prescription cost placed on the table, such as when presented with a consent form, as is cytotec prescription cost often the case with flu vaccinations and medical procedures. Another safety protocol is cytotec prescription cost standard in some physicians’ practices:  the cytotec prescription cost presence of another person in the room when a healthcare professional prepares and cytotec prescription cost administers injections.

Finkelstein told investigators he began administering injections in 2000; however, recent information reveals the cytotec prescription cost doctor was giving injections long before 2000.  Finkelstein came to the health department’s attention in 2004 when cytotec prescription cost a Nassau County Health Department nurse noticed unusual similarities in two of that cytotec prescription cost year’s hepatitis C cases.  Two patients received spinal injections for cytotec prescription cost back pain at around the same time by Finkelstein with one learning he subsequently contracted hepatitis C following routine blood.  Officials from cytotec prescription cost local and state jurisdictions observed Finkelstein reusing syringes to draw up medications and cytotec prescription cost dye from multiple dose vials, including syringes containing blood backflow.  This type of unsanitary behavior was determined to cytotec prescription cost be the source of contamination.

Hepatitis C and cytotec prescription cost B are both forms of viral hepatitis transmitted by infected blood, C causes chronic liver disease and cytotec prescription cost B causes fever, debility, and jaundice.  HIV is a retrovirus leading to AIDS and also transmitted by blood.  Full-blown AIDS is invariably fatal.

After a 2005 state intervention, Finkelstein changed his procedures.  Under state monitoring for cytotec prescription cost three years, he continues to practice and continues to maintain his innocence.