Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 3

fllrje $azttte I Thursday, October 28, 1 993 Page 3 Hospitals not fully utilizing computers, experts say even create bar codes for patients' identification bracelets that must match the medicine they receive all via computer. Mistakes that lead to patient death and injury often go unpublicized and are repeated in ignorance at other hospitals, the newspaper said. No agency exists to inform hospitals about disastrous errors elsewhere, and hospitals report only a fraction of their medication mistakes. Given a choice between a magnetic resonance imaging scanner or a computer system to gather patient data, hospital administrators are likely to take the MR1 scanner, Page said. The scanner will generate new business and cash from insurance Huge record collection up for sale "PITTSBURGH (AP) A record collector trying to sell more than 2 million 45s, LPs and compact discs said he may have found a group that wants it and he may gain a new job in the bargain.

The flip side is that he may have to leave town to complete the deal. Mawhinney is negotiating the National Music Foundation to sell his collection, which includes .750,000 LP records, 1.5 million 45 rpm records and 100,000 compact He also has a comprehensive catalog of record and titles. His attorney and the foundation are seeking benefactors to buy the -collection and donate it to the foundation. Mawhinney owns Record Rama Sound Archives in the Pittsburgh suburb of Ross Township. The Library of Congress has said his music library is the largest known record collection.

He has put a $50 million price tag on it. He said the foundation, started by musician Joey Dee and based in Lenox, sent him a letter recently expressing interest in the collection. A spokeswoman for the foundation said the organization was searching for an archives but that it was too early to comment on the -negotiations with Mawhinney. The foundalionisinthe process of establishing a National Music Cen-' ter. The center will include a education programs, a performance hall, a recording studio and archives.

turns down PITTSBURGH (AP) Hospital computers are busy churning out patient bills but easily could track fatal errors and prevent similar mistakes at other faciUlies, experts say. John A. Page, executive director of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society of the American Hospital Association, estimated that less than 5 percent of U.S. hospitals have computerized systems for patient care and safety. "Computerization as we have known it has generally generated from the need to process bills," Page told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Hospitals could collect data on patients, keep drug inventories and Judge motion for WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) A federal judge has denied a motion for a new trial for former state Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, who committed suicide in 1967. U.S. District Senior Judge Malcolm Muir ruled Wednesday that since Dwyer is dead, it is not possible to retry him.

Meadville lawyer Donald E. Lewis filed a new trial motion on behalf of Dwyer's widow Joanne in July, almost five years after the case was stamped closed. In a five-page opinion, Muir said the federal rules of criminal procedure are clear that only a defendant may move for a new trial. "The request Dies in the face of logic," Muir said, noting he could not find any other case in which a deceased defendant had been granted a new trial. Even if the motion was granted, there would be no way to hold another trial, the judge said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Lied, who opposed Lewis' motion, had argued the same point in a legal Dwyer retrial brief. Dwyer, 47, committed suicide at a Jan. 22, 1987, news conference in Harrisburg the day before he was to be sentenced by Muir. The judge said he also denied the new trial motion because it was filed years after the deadline set by rules of criminal procedure.

Paul Mawhinney stands in one of the aisles containing his record collection at his store in Ross Township, Wednesday. Mawhinney is negotiating with the National Music Foundation on the sale of his collection of over two million 45s, albums and CDs. (AP photo) ELECT Mary Ann Wesolosky TAX COLLECTOR ERNEST vv-vjp iu ii i i better comp rates ftDttlODt 1Dl I IT!) TL. .1.. Cnwur.

The I VOTE i GEORGE M.THACHIK; Gang colors prompt dismissal of students PITTSBURGH (AP) A principal said his students were challenging his moxie by violating a policy that prohibited pupils from wearing gang colors to school. About 100 middle school students were sent home Wednesday because they refused to remove the black, dark blue or red clothes. The Arsenal Middle School students, mostly seventh- and eighth-graders, declined to wear T-shirts offered by the school and refused an offer to go home and change. "They wanted to see bow far they could go. I think we passed the test and they failed," principal Joseph Foriska said.

City schools have a district-wide policy against wearing shirts and bandannas with gang colors, but Arsenal has specifically banned red, dark blue and black shirts because of their association with gang territories. Coats and jackets are not covered in the policy because students don't wear them inside schools. Foriska said most of the students were gang "wannabes" and not actual gang members. He viewed the incident as an "adolescent challenge" to his authority. DISTRICT JUSTICE MAGISTERIAL DISTRICT 40-3-01 CLYMER OFFICE VOTE NOV.

2 THACHIK FOR JUSTICE law also forces insurers to reassess their premiums, taking into account potential cost savings laid out in the reforms. But the Pennsylvania Compensation Ratings Bureau, which represents about 300 companies that issue workers' compensation insurance, came back two months later with a request for a 4.66 percent rate increase. Insurance Commissioner Cynthia Maleski on Tuesday ordered the insurers to cut their rates by at least 2 percent. Rates for some companies could fall by another 4.7 percent depending in part on how much individual insurers pay out in actual claims, she said. The rates arc expected to save businesses $300 million in annual premiums.

Maleski said. State officials on Wednesday outlined ways businesses could further cut costs. Under the new law, companies could gel a one-time rate reduction of 5 percent by establishing a committee to evaluate safety in the workplace. PATRICIA R. Ifc 2 HAPPY 24 BIRTHDAY I EDDIE MEUIUMW YourFmnKy Experience Dedication Integrity Endorsed By The United Mine Workers Of America PA Social Services Union (Southwest Chapter) And The Indiana County Central Labor Council PwJ For Bv CmrtJMr reimbursements.

The patient-care system just adds overhead costs. Page said. Medication errors cost hospitals, too, though. The Physician Insurers Association of America has completed a seven-year study on medication errors, based on 2,195 claims involving prescribed drugs. The insurance payments of $218.9 million averaged nearly $100,000 per claim.

The federal Joint Commission on Prescription Drug Use proposed in 1980 the establishment of a private, non-profit Center for Drug Surveillance. The center would have provided doctors with a single source of drug data. Tracking medication errors would have been a natural outgrowth of the center's work, the newspaper reported. The momentum for the center quickly died with the commission's report. "None of that happened," said commission Chairman Dr.

Kenneth L. Melmon. a Stanford University professor of clinical pharmacology. Some hospitals are now printing bar codes on patients' wrist bands and on drug packaging. Before any drug is given, the nurse scans both bar codes with a wand.

If the medicine is the wrong one, an alarm goes off. BORO Paid Dv Candidate HUSBAND FATHER EXPERIENCED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER PHONE 349-1720 9 5 fvjt mm wfrmf.Zi STREAMS Register and Recorder I HARRISBURG AP) The head of a group representing 4.000 small businesses in Pennsylvania said he would try to band companies together to get better rates for workers' compensation insurance. Leo McDonough, president of TEC-Pennsylvania Small Business United, said the cooperative would give small companies the option to insure themselves as larger companies do. Savings would be achieved by enlarging the pool and spreading the risk of claims for on-the-job injuries. "Small businesses are not in -the business to insure themselves," McDonough said Wednesday.

"We're pretty much at the mercy of what's out on the market." After two years of intense debate and negotiations in the Legislature, acting Gov. Mark Singcl in July signed a law allowing 'companies to form cooperatives for workers' compensation insurance. Transplant patient remains in Pittsburgh PITTSBURGH (AP) A 5-ycar-' old transplant patient who received Ave organs last year was released from the hospital after spending "nearly two months being treated for complications. Charlie Fourstar of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana will remain in the city over the winter will not be under any restric-' lions, her doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said Wednesday. "Charlie is doing great," Dr.

Bakr Nour said. "She's a strong child." Charlie received a liver, stomach, pancreas and large and small intestines last Nov. 3. She was readmitted Scpt.Mothe medical center because a blood infection and spent several weeks in the intensive care unit The girl was born with short-gut syndrome, a malady that prevents the small intestine from properly absorbing nutrition. She had to be fed intravenously until her transplant.

Charlie and her mother, Antoinette, declined to be interviewed Wednesday. TRADER HORN Rt. 286. Indiana i Spectrum Plastic crates 2 for 5 Stcrt Good Through Svrway -Assorted Sifii 6 years Experience in Recorder's Office Currently Serving 6th Year as County Auditor VOTE FOR EXPERIENCE THAT COUNTS VOTE STREAMS FOR REGISTER RECORDER Br Slnwrci Fty Heghler Reorder ComcnHlee fyjj Qjj) Bjjvj -msn. tr Group includes Table.

4 Side Ctairc. 2 Ami Chairs. Solid Cherry Dining Room fggfe A QQQ 5299with Scott H. Graham Independent Candidate from Jt "-iJiiiitiiSF Sofas $7 QQ () Vmm 1 PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE TlionmsviUe Gallery' -ezLl Manor School Board 4-YEAR TERM Burrell Blacklick Twps. Lifelong Resident Of Burrell Blairsville A Parent Who Cares About The Education Of Our Children An Elder In The Blairsville United Presbyterian Church "I pledge to listen, learn and make the best decisions I possibly can for the welfare of the students in our community.

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