Olympus in Financial trouble with Medical Division Liability

[CameraQuest]

see http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-olympus-outbreak-20150302-story.html#page=1

 

[charjohncarter]

Too bad, these infections are emotionally large but statistically small. I think that last few sentences said it all. Basically because of this infection problem Olympus will sell more scopes.

 

[dcsang]

I had heard about the superbug and the fact that it was endoscopes which were being cleaned according to manufacturer specs but still coming out with bacteria; I didn't realize it was Olympus' scopes.

I don't think the issue is that the infections are "small" so much as the fact that the bacteria are resistant - that is the important thing to consider here - antibiotic resistant can be fatal (obviously) to some patients and can continue to be passed along - the elderly, the very young, and those that are already imuno-compromised will be at risk.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[fireblade]

The LA Times had some space to fill, and put one of them "drama" articles in that space.
Thankfully it wasn't an article on how the nomads camels are suffering from Global Warming.

 

[BillBingham2]

Good article, thanks for sharing.

It's really hard to fix problems that are not reported or discovered. Very sadly outcome on many fronts on this one.

B2 (;-<

 

[VertovSvilova]

The LA Times had some space to fill, and put one of them "drama" articles in that space.
Thankfully it wasn't an article on how the nomads camels are suffering from Global Warming.

Well, the LA Times is the local paper.... and UCLA is one of the country's biggest research hospitals and it's located in um, LA. 🙂 And so it's not really a 'drama' piece locally. Maybe for the rest of the world....

But nonetheless, a couple of things stood out in respect to Olympus as a company and why I think the forum's head bartender posted it in the first place (and the connection it has to Olympus' past history):

"Many of these same concerns also apply to Olympus' two main rivals, Pentax Medical and Fujifilm."

But then: "The company's relationship with medical providers has already come under scrutiny. Last month, Olympus said federal investigators are looking into whether it violated laws that ban improper kickbacks to doctors and other customers. The company said it's working to resolve the matter."

 

[semilog]

Well, the LA Times is the local paper.... and UCLA is one of the country's biggest research hospitals and it's located in um, LA. 🙂 And so it's not really a 'drama' piece locally. Maybe for the rest of the world...."

Hospital infections with multidrug-resistant bacteria are no joke. They are increasingly common and often have dreadful or lethal consequences. Evolution in action, in real time -- and the pipeline of new antibiotics is not exactly full.

The fact that I have a doctorate in microbiology makes me more, not less sanguine, by the way. This is some seriously scary s**t.

 

[VertovSvilova]

Hospital infections with multidrug-resistant bacteria are no joke. They are increasingly common and often have dreadful or lethal consequences. Evolution in action, in real time -- and the pipeline of new antibiotics is not exactly full.

The fact that I have a doctorate in microbiology makes me more, not less sanguine, by the way. This is some seriously scary s**t.

I agree it's no joke. And it's making news here locally not only in respect to the status of UCLA Medical Center, but also in consideration of the shear number of patient traffic it sees daily.

 

[farlymac]

The LA Times had some space to fill, and put one of them "drama" articles in that space.
Thankfully it wasn't an article on how the nomads camels are suffering from Global Warming.

I had a scope procedure last month. Took me two weeks to recover from the bug I got from it. That kind of "drama" is more than I wanted.

PF

 

[Doug]

Hospital infections with multidrug-resistant bacteria are no joke. They are increasingly common and often have dreadful or lethal consequences. Evolution in action, in real time -- and the pipeline of new antibiotics is not exactly full.

The fact that I have a doctorate in microbiology makes me more, not less sanguine, by the way. This is some seriously scary s**t.

"Sanguine" means "cheerful, optimistic"... In context, is this what you meant, or just the opposite?