Hospitals/Doctors
03/05/2007
In 1990, ABC News "Primetime" won an investigative reporters and editors award for a hidden camera account of patient neglect, abuse, and unsanitary conditions at a Veterans Health Administration hospital in Ohio. That same year, JCAHO found that VHA hospitals were at least 20 percent more likely than others to fall below quality standards.
Article 99, starring Kiefer Sutherland, appeared two years later. It was a movie drama about a group of Kansas City VHA hospital doctors forced to contend with bureaucratic red tape, inefficiency, and a paperwork abundance that left patients in the lurch.
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03/05/2007
The Sogavare-led government this week will sign a deal with Cuba to recruit Cuban doctors into Solomon Islands.
The country is currently facing an acute doctor shortage which required the government to utilize the Cuban offer which was initially made in 1998 by the then government.
Foreign Affairs Minister Patterson Oti left on Saturday to meet his counterpart in the Cuban capital, Havana to sign a technical cooperation framework, which will form part of the doctor recruitment exercise.
The Cabinet has approved the arrangement last week in Honiara.
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03/05/2007
Introduction: Patients with critical burns
rushed out of Hospital, put onto plane
Seven survivors of the Samjhauta Express tragedy
were forced on Thursday to leave Safdarjung Hospital on short notice and taken
away to a waiting Pakistan Air Force aircraft to be flown back home.
All of them were badly burned and a few of
them pleaded that they be allowed to stay back for a few days more for their
wounds to heal. Some said they had no one at home to look after them. But
the doctors said they were helpless; these were orders from above.
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03/05/2007
For two weeks, revelations about U.S. war veterans, recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, living in deplorable conditions and being ignored by a callous bureaucracy, have shocked Americans, cost some Pentagon officials their jobs, and generated a significant scandal. But we continue to learn more and more all the time.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on ABC yesterday, ";If it';s this bad at the outpatient facilities at Walter Reed, how is it in the rest of the country? Walter Reed is our crown jewel."; As it turns out, Walter Reed is just the tip of the iceberg.
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03/05/2007
3/04/2007 11:02:00 PM ET
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This is how America supports its troops: Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. His own VA hospital in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken.
"It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva slowly tapped out on his keyboard at 4:23 in the afternoon on Friday.
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03/05/2007
When word got around that solo general internist Michael Hennigan, FACP, was holding group visits at his diabetes and lipid center in Decatur, Ala, people started showing up who weren't his primary care patients. Dr. Hennigan, who lives in an area of the country with high diabetes rates, was glad to see them. But some of his colleagues around town felt differently.
"We teach the patients what kind of care to expect, and if they don't get it, to ask for it. This has gotten a few people upset at us," Dr. Hennigan said. "We had one physician call and say 'Stop telling my patients to take off their shoes.
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03/05/2007
Monday, March 05, 2007
more hospital problems for vets found
via make them accountable we find an ed&pub report that tells us the washpost is on a roll searching out problems for hospitalized vets:
ray oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in kelseyville, calif., to wrestle with his feelings. he didn't know a single soldier at walter reed, but he felt he knew them all. he worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. his own va hospital in livermore was a mess. the gown he wore was torn. the wheelchairs were old and broken.
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03/05/2007
In a major shift designed to be more competitive in attracting patients, University Hospitals is strengthening efforts to focus on patient service, Chief Executive Officer Donna Katen-Bahensky said.
It isn't that the hospital hasn't cared about patients before, she said. But in the past, University Hospitals has, like other hospitals, designed patient flow, facilities and services around the needs of faculty, doctors and staff.
The idea now is to make patient needs the center of everything, a type of patient-as-consumer model of doing business, Katen-Bahensky said.
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03/05/2007
The latest volley in the regional hospital war saga began Feb. 28 during a regional chamber of commerce mixer and public information session at the Huntley Municipal Complex.
Centegra Health System brass were on hand to reveal additional details about their newest health-care campus proposed for 110 acres at Algonquin and Haligus roads.
A certificate of need for Centegra's $26 million Ambulatory Care Mall is pending before the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. A hearing is scheduled for today.
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03/05/2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey resigned Friday in the wake of recent reports of substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a key facility treating troops wounded in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Harvey's resignation at the Pentagon, just a day after Harvey removed the hospital's commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, from his post.
Gates said Undersecretary of the Army Peter Garon will temporarily take Harvey's place.
"I thanked Dr. Harvey for his distinguished service to the department and to the nation," Gates said.
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03/05/2007
For patients with colorectal cancer who require the surgical removal of a part of their colon (colectomy), an experimental procedure that combines the benefits of laparoscopic surgery and open surgery may decrease the time they spend in the operating room. Surgeon-scientists from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and its academic affiliates are currently recruiting patients for a clinical research study to test this hypothesis.
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03/05/2007
It isn't only reel-life hero Munnabhai MBBS who had to go to Hollywood for his MD. In a sixties phenomenon that is making a comeback, Indian doctors are again heading for American shores. Thanks to scarce MD seats - made even more scarce by reservation - doctors are again queuing up outside the offices of visa consultants.
Delhi-based visa consultant Himish Bhatnagar is handling a veritable deluge of applications. "The volume of doctors going to the US from India has increased dramatically in the last two years," he says. Last year, Bhatnagar helped 400 doctors get visas to the United States as compared to the mere 250 in 2005.
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03/05/2007
WASHINGTON -; Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier wounded in Iraq, but he felt as if he knew them all.
He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. His own VA clinic in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken.
"It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva, 70, slowly tapped out on his keyboard at 4:23 in the afternoon Friday. "The VA hospitals are not good either except for the staff who work so hard.
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03/04/2007
When Mrs. Halstead, of Weston, W. Va., fell ill with diarrhea and vomiting on December 23 after having a peanut butter sandwich. Her condition worsened and she was admitted to Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, where the menu did not include peanut butter.
Mrs. Halstead developed pneumonia and congestive heart failure but still she told her son Larry she yearned for peanut butter.
"So, dumb old me, I made her a peanut butter sandwich at home and brought it to her at the hospital, because it was just about the only thing she wanted to eat," Larry Halstead said. "In no time, she got just 100% worse.
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03/04/2007
W
hen patients and their relatives say they have a “good doctor”, they mean a doctor whom they feel they can trust without having to think about it. They equate “goodness” with integrity, safety, up-to-date medical knowledge and diagnostic skill, and the ability to form a good relationship with them. For them, good doctors are clinically expert and at the same time are interested in them, kind, courteous, empathetic and caring.
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03/04/2007
The stirring strains of the traditional Gaudeamus igitur
surrounded the foundation students of Wollongong University's new medical school as they filed into the University Hall for their welcoming ceremony. As proceedings unfolded, it soon became obvious that this fledgling Graduate School of Medicine (GSM) was embarking on a different journey to that taken by our established medical schools.
Significantly, the school has already forged strong partnerships with communities in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven districts, as was clear from the many community leaders present at the ceremony.
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03/04/2007
Working towards a medical degree is not easy, and it wasn't long after joining medical school that I understood the phenomenal workload. The didactic "spoon feeding"
method with which we became intimate in our school days was a thing of the past. In my clinical years there was an obvious decline in the number of lectures, and with that the added benefit of specialist training sessions at the bedside. They were interactive, of course: often so interactive as to put individual students in the spotlight and have them questioned to the point of humiliation.
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03/04/2007
Q: Nurses are just wonderful, but you really can't expect Hollywood to focus on them, can you? After all, popular media products have to be dramatic and exciting. Why don't you just focus on getting a nursing documentary on PBS or basic cable?
A:
Because the work of nurses is at least as dramatic as that of physicians, and getting the wider public to understand that would be of great value in resolving the nursing shortage that is one of the world's most pressing public health problems. More than a few Hollywood insiders have expressed to us some version of the sentiments in the above FAQ.
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03/04/2007
FULLBACK Shaun Beeley after receiving his injury - the damage to his left cheekbone can clearly be seen.
EXCLUSIVE
OLDHAM Athletic are demanding a "full investigation" after claiming that serious injuries to two young footballers, within the space of 24 hours, were misdiagnosed by staff at Royal Oldham Hospital.
Club officials were submitting a formal complaint as the Advertiser went to press following separate incidents last week which saw first-team player Chris Hall suffer a bad fracture to his leg and youth-team player Shaun Beeley a severely fractured cheekbone.
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03/04/2007
3/3/07
Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for war-wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Harvey's departure, announced on short notice by a visibly agitated Defense Secretary Robert Gates, was the most dramatic move in an escalating removal of officials with responsibilities over one of the military's highest-profile and busiest medical facilities.
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03/04/2007
Banks have done it. Airlines, too.
Duke University Health System thinks it's high time that hospitals and doctors' offices help patients access their records online, as well.
The health system recently introduced HealthView, a Web site designed to give patients access to their financial and medical records online. Through the site, patients at any of the system's hospitals and clinics can see how much they owe Duke and how much they paid it during a year and ultimately keep tabs on their diagnostic test results.
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03/04/2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for wounded Iraq soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Harvey's sudden departure was the most dramatic move yet in an escalating removal of commanders with responsibilities over one of the military's highest-profile and busiest medical facilities.
Hours earlier, President Bush ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at the nation's network of military and veteran hospitals in the wake of the Walter Reed disclosures.
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03/04/2007
Defense chief voices anger over hospital mess
WASHINGTON (AP) - Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for wounded Iraq soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Harvey's sudden departure was the most dramatic move yet in an escalating removal of commanders with responsibilities over one of the military's highest-profile and busiest medical facilities.
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03/04/2007
February 18, 2005 | Before he hanged himself with his bathrobe sash in
the psychiatric ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Spc. Alexis
Soto-Ramirez complained to friends about his medical treatment.
Soto-Ramirez, 43, had been flown out of Iraq five months before then
because of chronic back pain that became excruciating during the war.
But doctors were really worried about his mind. They thought he suffered
from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving with the 544th
Military Police Company, a unit of the Puerto Rico National Guard, the
kind of unit that saw dirty, face-to-face combat in Iraq.
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03/04/2007
THE boss of an under-fire hospitals trust in the region has defended his record and rejected claims that services are being cut.
The comments by John Saxby, chief executive of County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Foundation Trust, came on the eve of the first major demonstration by health workers against NHS cuts to be held in the region for years.
Today, hundreds of health trade unionists are due to demonstrate in the centre of Darlington and Sunderland.
They will be protesting against plans to reduce health jobs across the NHS and Government reforms.
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03/03/2007
This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine.
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03/03/2007
Gates took no questions after announcing Harvey's departure, leaving the strong impression that Harvey, who has been Army secretary since Nov. 19, 2004, had been pushed out as a direct result of the problems at Walter Reed, or at the very least that he had offered his resignation and that it had been quickly accepted. Gates said Pete Geren, the under secretary of the Army, would be acting secretary until a replacement for Harvey is picked.
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03/03/2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - It began with reports of mice and moldy plaster, but after two weeks of outrage, the scandal over poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has claimed several careers - including the secretary of the Army's.
Secretary Francis J. Harvey's abrupt dismissal Friday came under withering criticism from Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who said the Army's response to the substandard conditions for the war-wounded was defensive, and not aggressive enough.
And it left the door open for more personnel changes, as investigations continue and Congress prepares for hearings next week.
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03/03/2007
The rescheduled regular board meeting of the new Enderlin Area Public School District #24 was held Thursday, February 22, 2007 in the School's Meeting Room 117. Board members present included Sandi Bar-tholomay, Matt Bartholo-may, Dan Billing, Rollie Schroeder, Rick Gillund and Cyndee Chesley. School Business Manager Susan Schlecht and School Super-intendent Pat Feist attended as did guests Diane Fuhrman and Barb Barth-olomay. Presiding over the meeting was Board Presi-dent Cyndee Chesley and a quorum was established with the meeting beginning at 8:12pm immediately following the band concert.
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03/03/2007
In order to identify customer needs and priorities and suitably
address them, the hospital chose the Six Sigma methodology of quality management.
The hospital chose GE, the pioneer in implementing Six Sigma principles, as
a guide for the project implementation.
The first task was to list the problem areas. The hospital
located as many as 77. "It was not practical to approach all the concern
areas at one time. Hence, the areas were whittled to 30 and then finally to
six," explains Sanjay Chandiramani, Quality Leader (QL) and Co-ordinator
of the Six Sigma initiative.
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03/03/2007
County commission concerns about the three proposed sites for a hospital were reviewed by the County Hospital Advisory Committee Tuesday.
During his report, Committee Chair Bob Davey said he, along with board member Kathy Chavez and consultant Robin Hunn of Robin Hunn, LLC, spoke with the county commissioners who had expressed concerns during the Feb. 21 commission meeting.
Davey said there seemed to be two primary concerns expressed by the commissioners. They were the financial viability of the hospital and how other providers already in the county, such as Presbyterian, would interface with the hospital.
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03/03/2007
President Bush's response? In his 2006 budget he announced he would eliminate a $9 million treatment program for people with Traumatic Brain Injury.
Doctors say the proportion of head injuries is higher in Iraq than in past wars partly because roadside bombs and suicide car bombs are often the weapons of choice for insurgents. Also, recent advances in body armor and helmets mean that troops caught in blasts often live but can be jolted so badly by the shock wave that their brains are injured by smacking against the inside of their skulls.
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03/03/2007
WASHINGTON - Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as
the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over
substandard conditions for war-wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center.
Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey gestures during a news
briefing at the Pentagon in this March 23, 2005 file photo. [AP]
Harvey's departure, announced on
short notice by a visibly agitated Defense Secretary Robert Gates, was the most
dramatic move in an escalating removal of officials with responsibilities over
one of the military's highest-profile and busiest medical facilities.
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03/03/2007
The chaos created by a new training system for young doctors is the "biggest crisis to hit British medicine", a leading surgeon said yesterday.
Prof Gus McGrowther: 'This is the biggest crisis to hit British medicine since the start of the NHS'
The new system, being investigated by the Royal College of Surgeons, has left thousands of junior doctors without jobs as trainee consultants.
Their current posts will end in August and fears are growing about how hospitals will cope.
The despairing and increasingly angry doctors have set the date for a London protest march and are taking legal advice about the equity of the new system.
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03/03/2007
WASHINGTON - Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for war-wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Harvey's departure, announced on short notice by a visibly agitated Defense Secretary Robert Gates, was the most dramatic move in an escalating removal of officials with responsibilities over one of the military's highest-profile and busiest medical facilities.
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03/03/2007
Godfrey, who remains jailed after a judge Friday would not set bail for her on a New York state warrant, hasn't practiced obstetrics at Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems hospitals in more than two years, a company spokesman said.
She was arrested Thursday at her office on State Road 434 and remains held without bail at the Seminole County Jail on the warrant alleging "criminal sale of a controlled substance."
The multistate probe into the distribution of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs also resulted in the arrests of three Orlando pharmacists on New York warrants.
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03/03/2007
Startup Medsphere released the core elements of its OpenVista health
care system as open source code this week.
Medsphere hopes to capitalize on a successful deployment at the Veterans
Health Administration hospital system by adapting its software to the
community hospitals and private health care providers.
OpenVista is already in operation at Midland Memorial Hospital in
Midland, Texas. Medsphere's chairman and CEO is Ken Kizer, the former VA
administrator who fought for a standard IT system in VA hospitals.
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03/03/2007
Abington Memorial of Abington, Pa., is one of the largest suburban medical centers in the Philadelphia region. Magellan (NASDAQ:MGLN), based in Avon, Conn., administers behavioral health benefits for members of Independence Blue Cross managed-care plans. Magellan also administers health coverage for several of Pennsylvania's Medicaid HMO plans.
Abington Memorial President Richard L. Jones Jr., in a letter posted on the hospital's Web site, said Magellan's rates have remained fixed since 2002. He said last year the hospital lost $1.
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03/03/2007
Opinion Pieces Discount Single-Payer Legislation
March 2, 2007
Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, and the editorial board of the San Jose Mercury News on Friday weighed in on health care reform efforts in California. Summaries appear below.
Van Gorder, San Diego Union-Tribune: "To prevent the further loss of hospitals and emergency rooms, any solution to our health care crisis must . [a]ddress the uninsured problem," increase Medi-Cal funding and help hospitals cover the cost of compliance with state seismic safety rules and other "unfunded mandates," Van Gorder writes in a Union-Tribune opinion piece.
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03/02/2007
Monday afternoon, RVH closed a section of one of its medical units in response to a contained outbreak of gastro intestinal virus, which caused over a dozen patients and staff to become ill since last Thursday.
More .
Lake Simcoe Conservation Foundation gives Board of Directors 2006 review
by Michelle Minnoch
Kimberly MacKenzie, Executive Director of the Lake Simcoe Conservation Foundation (LSCF) gave an update of their 2006 accomplishments to the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) Board of Directors on February 23rd.
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03/02/2007
2:41 pm, February 28, 2007
Southwest General Health Center said Wednesday that it will close its inpatient pediatric care unit.
The Middleburg Heights hospital said the unit will shut down effective March 12. It "will continue to provide outpatient services for children of all ages and inpatient pediatric medical and surgical care for children 14 years of age and older," according to a Southwest General statement issued this afternoon.
A Southwest General spokeswoman, Mary Van Dalen, was not immediately available to discuss the unit's closing.
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03/02/2007
rep2@wyomingnews.com
CHEYENNE - Dr. Patty Stepp wanted to bring advanced vision care to developing countries.
It was one of the reasons she became an ophthalmologist in the first place.
So she was eager to take an opportunity with the Mante Medical Mission in Mexico.
In February Stepp joined a medical team, traveling eight hours south of Brownsville, Texas to the city of Mante.
By the end of the eight-day visit, she had given 350 people a new chance to see clearly.
As chief of surgical services for Cheyenne's Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Stepp was familiar with cataract surgeries.
But these were not typical patients.
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03/02/2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for war-wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Harvey's departure, announced on short notice by a visibly agitated Defense Secretary Robert Gates, was the most dramatic move in an escalating removal of officials with responsibilities over one of the military's highest-profile and busiest medical facilities.
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03/02/2007
OU Physicians (405) 271-5067
Oklahoma City, OK -- David C. Teague, M.D., has been named chairman of the department of Orthopedic Surgery at the OU College of Medicine. As such, he provides leadership of the academic, research and patient care activities of the department. Teague is also a practicing orthopedic surgeon as part of OU Physicians. Orthopedic surgeons diagnose and treat diseases, disorders and injuries involving bones, joints, and tendons.
Teague is board certified in orthopedic surgery. He has specific expertise in treating complex multiple injuries and traumas as well as pelvic and joint fractures.
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03/02/2007
The Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times lead with the Army firing the commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Army said it had "lost trust and confidence" in Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman's ability to fix the problems plaguing wounded soldiers at outpatient facilities. But news that Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley was chosen to temporarily replace Weightman raised more than a few eyebrows, a fact the NYT fails to mention. Kiley was commander of Walter Reed until 2004, and many claim he was aware of the problems at the medical center but did nothing to improve the situation.
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03/02/2007
It was late afternoon one recent day. Outside the sun was shining. But in Dr. Paul K. Kleinman's office at Children's Hospital Boston, it was dark, the shades were drawn, and he was staring at images of an infant's skeleton, looking for the telltale signs of child abuse.
"These X-rays," he said, "are from 13 minutes ago."
There were shots of the skull, the rib cage, the legs and arms, each from multiple angles. It's known as a skeletal survey, and doctors at Children's and most other hospitals request it whenever they're dealing with a child who may be suffering from abuse.
Kleinman sees these surveys all the time.
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03/02/2007
As it has been for the past few years, the speech is being webcast and NUSAC has set up an e-mail for people to send in questions. I anticipate that there will be questions so I'll speak relatively briefly in order to leave time to answer them.
I've been traveling quite a bit recently, talking to alumni and other supporters of the University. It's occasionally a bit hectic, but I enjoy doing it because Northwestern has a great story to tell - terrific students, remarkable faculty achievements, excellent administrative support and an ever-strengthening university.
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03/02/2007
Washington- One of the country's top civilian military
officials, Francis Harvey, abruptly stepped down Friday as secretary
of the US Army amidst a widening scandal over health care management
for soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While Harvey's resignation appeared to be connected to an
immediate crisis over care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in
the nation's capital, US President George W Bush ordered a system-
wide investigation into possible problems at other facilities.
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03/02/2007
PERRY TWP. After an incision, a 60-year-old man's skin was peeled back. A saw was used to cut open the man's chest plate.
A surgical knife trimmed the muscle underneath. Organs were scooped out like pumpkin seeds, by hand.
Watching were high school students.
"That's so gross," said Perry High School senior Brittany Rickenbrode, 17, a medical technology student, as doctors examined the man's stomach.
Perry High junior Rebecca Casteel, 17, could barely watch as the gallbladder was dissected. She wouldn't look when the brain was removed.
"Eww," Casteel said Thursday in reaction to the autopsy she and her classmates were watching.
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03/02/2007
Dr. Jennifer DeGrenier, a pediatrician in the practice of Hertzig, Gerrity, Griffin and DeGrenier in North Adams, is shown using one of the tablet PCs now in use to enter information into the electronic medical record.
Northern Berkshire eHealth Collaborative's launch of its electronic health record (EHR) system was profiled in a front page story by Liz Kowalczyk in the Boston Globe on Tuesday, January 30. North Adams, Brockton, and Newburyport are the three communities in the state that are serving as pilot communities for this Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative's EHR program.
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03/02/2007
By Deborah
March 2, 2007 - 5:14 AM
CSI:NY star Gary Sinise has been acting professionally for over 30 years. Many of his roles have been members of the military. He is frequently referred to as "Lieutenant Dan" after the character he played in Forrest Gump. In his current role as Detective Mac Taylor, he plays an ex-Marine. Through Sinise's work as an actor, his frequent USO tours and the charity he cofounded -- Operation Iraqi Children -- he has had a lot of direct contact with the men and women in uniform who serve the United States. He shares some of what that experience has taught him.
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03/02/2007
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Ailing hospital seeks a partner
By Gregory Lopes
March 2, 2007
Montgomery General Hospital, after 85 years of independent operation, announced this week it is seeking proposals from other health care providers to set up a partnership.
Despite reports that the hospital is on the verge of a buyout, Peter Monge, the hospital's chief executive officer, is adamant that Montgomery General is not up for sale.
"We are truly looking for a partner," he said.
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03/02/2007
Senior defense officials speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that Gates had asked Harvey to leave. He was displeased that Harvey, after firing Maj. Gen. George Weightman as the head of Army Medical Center, chose to name as Weightman's temporary replacement another general whose role in the controversy was still in question, the unnamed official said.
Harvey had been secretary of the Army since Nov. 19, 2004. Gates announced that Undersecretary of the Army Pete Geren will serve as acting secretary until a new secretary is in place. Geren served as acting secretary of the Air Force from July to November 2005.
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03/02/2007
WASHINGTON - The two-star general in charge of Walter Reed Army Medical Center was relieved of command on Thursday, after disclosures that wounded soldiers being treated as outpatients were living in dilapidated quarters and enduring long waits for treatment.
Maj. Gen. George Weightman, a physician and a graduate of West Point, was fired because Army Secretary Francis Harvey ``had lost trust and confidence'' in his ability to make improvements in outpatient care at Walter Reed, the Army said in a brief statement.
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03/02/2007
"We have a history of using information systems to achieve higher quality of care," declares Susan Cerrone Abely, VP and CIO of Roger Williams Medical Center (RWMC) in Providence, RI. "The culture here has historically been one of pushing and moving forward, setting ambitious goals, and then striving to meet, or hopefully exceed, them."
The organization's pioneering spirit was certainly evident from the start, as RWMC brought patient management software, EMR, general financials, and all department clinicals LIVE within the first seven months of their initial MEDITECH installation, back when Abely first joined in 2001.
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03/02/2007
Kulana Malama will help kids needing long-term medical help
By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com
The first facility in the Pacific providing skilled nursing care for medically fragile children has a storybook theme for good reason: Developer Gordon Ito thought about his two grandchildren during the design phase.
"I kept telling my interior designer, 'We need to get into the minds of kids and what excites them,'" Ito said.
The Ewa facility, called Kulana Malama, resembles an enchanted forest with a floor-to-ceiling beanstalk, billowy clouds and a castle. "It's very Disneyesque," Ito said.
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03/02/2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey resigned Friday in the wake of recent reports of substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a key facility treating troops wounded in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Harvey's resignation at the Pentagon, just a day after Harvey removed the hospital's commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, from his post.
Gates said Undersecretary of the Army Peter Geren will temporarily take Harvey's place. Harvey will leave on March 9.
"I thanked Dr. Harvey for his distinguished service to the department and to the nation," Gates said.
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03/02/2007
Harare - Doctors at Zimbabwe's main state hospitals have called off a two-month strike for better salaries and working conditions after reaching a compromise with government, said the health ministry on Friday.
"The doctors are back at work," said deputy health minister Edwin Muguti. "They started coming back to work yesterday (on Thursday)."
He said the doctors, who had demanded that their salaries be raised from the current Z$56 000 (about $224) to Z$5m a month, "are happy with the package we have put together for them".
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03/02/2007
The committee chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), said the effort to privatize support services "led to a precipitous drop" in the number of personnel providing facilities management and other services at Walter Reed and may have been responsible for some of the problems there.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, meanwhile, announced this afternoon that he has accepted the resignation of Francis J. Harvey as secretary of the Army, and he said the Army later today would name a new permanent replacement for Weightman.
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03/02/2007
WATERVILLE -- The people in charge of Maine's three largest health-care systems went on a road trip together Thursday, a joint venture on a day they announced a cooperative agreement that could save millions of dollars and greatly ease the transfer of patient information.
"One of the guiding principles we have used," MaineHealth President Bill Caron said at a news conference held at MaineGeneral Medical Center's Thayer Campus, "is how can we improve the care given to patients, and how can we improve the support we give to our doctors and staff.
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03/02/2007
Mary Davis, who runs a software consulting business, values her time. And she hates waiting, especially in doctors'; offices, which she says she used to do a lot.
";I was becoming stunned at how poorly medical scheduling was being done,"; says Davis, 56. ";I';d go to the doctor; he';d say, ‘Be here at 11.'; He';d see you at 12:15 and then sometimes they';d put you in their little waiting room and the doctor still didn';t come in for 20 more minutes.";
Davis doesn';t wait for her physician anymore.
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03/01/2007
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Connecticut legislators propose near-universal health care plan
Stefanie Presley
at 8:38 PM ET
[JURIST] Lawmakers in Connecticut's House of Representatives [official website] have introduced a health care reform bill [text] aimed at providing coverage to the state's uninsured. The initiative introduced Tuesday positions Connecticut within the growing ranks of states that have recently proposed health care reform plans for their poor and uninsured residents.
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03/01/2007
February 28, 2007
Feb. 28--A new federal study says the human papillomavirus that can lead
to cervical cancer infects many more girls and young women than
previously thought, and researchers stressed the importance of a newly
approved vaccine.
The study, released Tuesday, found an infection rate among women 14
to 59 of about one-quarter, similar to previous findings. But 7.5
million females in the 14-to-24 age group -- 33.8 percent -- are
infected. Earlier estimates put the number at 4.6 million in that age
group.
Researchers attribute the higher numbers entirely to better counting
methods, not an increase in infection.
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03/01/2007
American medical education produces doctors whose superpower is a wondrous agility on standardized tests. We have crawled our way past the PSAT, the SAT, the MCATs, and the National Board of Medical Examiners Parts 1, 2, and 3, till finally we vanquish our specialty certification.
There is only one flaw: When we bump up against a real-life problem, we can be horribly dimwitted. So, when challenged by the biggest problem of all - death - we do what we know best: design yet another program of study and qualification.
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03/01/2007
Press Association
Thursday March 1, 2007
SocietyGuardian.co.uk
Undercover police officers are to be placed in one Britain's busiest emergency wards to tackle anti-social behaviour and violence towards staff.
Plain-clothed officers will begin patrolling the A&E department at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham as part of a three-month pilot project.
They will patrol the waiting room on Friday and Saturday nights as health bosses attempt to stamp out rowdy behaviour from patients, relatives or friends. Anyone caught misbehaving could be arrested, issued with an on-the-spot fine or even removed from the hospital.
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03/01/2007
Chief executives of NHS trusts across England are demoralised by government attempts to reorganise the health service and are having to cut back staff and delay operations, a poll revealed today.
About 70% of hospital and primary care trust chiefs think the NHS is "hidebound by bureaucracy" and 86% said managers were battered and bruised by reorganisation. They have had to introduce tough measures to cut costs over the past few months, with half the trusts delaying operations and three-quarters restricting patients' access to treatment.
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03/01/2007
Minister pledges to find Bt40m to fund new site after hearing how staff and residents near industrial area have suffered health problems
The Public Health Ministry has agreed to relocate Map Ta Phut Hospital far away from the Map Ta Phut industrial complex after finding that a young nurse had developed ovary cancer and more staff were suffering respiratory ailments than other hospitals.
Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkla said after visiting the hospital and nearby communities yesterday that he planned to find Bt40 million to move the 30-bed hospital.
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03/01/2007
A proposed change to Hawaii's medical malpractice law is taking center stage at the Legislature, the result of doctors' pleas that lawsuits and higher insurance premiums are driving an increasing number of specialists out of the state.
The 1,300-member Hawaii Medical Association is lobbying for a bill that would cap the noneconomic damages in a malpractice suit at $500,000. Currently there is no cap on noneconomic damages.
The House bill has passed the health and consumer protection committees and is scheduled for a final hearing today in the House Judiciary Committee.
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03/01/2007
The Government is on a collision course with nurses and other health workers after deciding to award them a staged pay rise below the rate of inflation, while giving the armed forces the highest increase in the public sector.
A 2.5% increase for health staff will be paid in two stages in April and November, effectively worth less than 2% a year, while rises of between 3.3% and 9.2% for servicemen and women will be paid "without delay".
Union leaders described the announcement as a "kick in the teeth" for NHS staff and raised the threat of industrial action.
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03/01/2007
Intel, of Santa Clara, Calif., last year helped to establish a multicompany alliance called Continua to define medical-technology standards, and the company has set up a "digital health" group for its strategy to develop combinations of computer chips and other technologies for specific markets. With Motion, Intel deployed demographics researchers to study how nurses work, consulted with them and tested tablets at three hospitals, said Louis Burns, vice president of Intel's digital-health group.
Motion, a closely held tablet maker in Austin, Texas, already gets about half of its sales from the medical industry.
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03/01/2007
Believed to be the first of its kind in England, the newly installed InfoFlex Information system from Chameleon Information Management Services Ltd (CIMS) collects relevant clinical data and produces a Discharge Summary. The Discharge Summary is then sent via Anglia Healthcare electronically from the hospital directly to the patient's GP system as soon as the patient is discharged.
Until recently GPs may have waited days to receive information but thanks to the new initiative, a GP is up to date in a matter of hours.
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03/01/2007
Less than two months after Caritas Health Care Inc., officially took ownership of St. John';s Queens Hospital, The Queens Courier has learned that major staffing cuts are imminent as part of the hospital';s reorganization plan.
As many as 32 full-time employee-nursing positions, which could affect as many as 50 nurses, technicians and patient care assistants, are likely to be terminated or displaced within the next month, according to multiple sources at the hospital.
";They are going to staff the whole hospital to the bare minimum,"; said one nurse who has been with the hospital for more than 10 years.
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03/01/2007
Dubai: Friends and family of a 58-year-old-French man, who was bleeding profusely from a puncture in a major artery, are questioning why a private hospital discharged him despite his condition.
Maurice Copin was rushed to Dubai Hospital just before midnight on February 19 in critical condition, a few hours after Zulekha Hospital discharged him.
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03/01/2007
will still baby you
By Diane Villano
Times Staff Writer
Jeanes Hospital has joined several other Northeast Philadelphia hospitals that in recent years have ended their maternity services. However, just three miles away, in Meadowbrook, Montgomery County, Holy Redeemer Hospital is welcoming them.
Billboards on I-95 tout the facility's availability for Northeast Philadelphia moms, who last year accounted for a little more than half of the maternity patients at the Huntingdon Pike hospital.
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03/01/2007
Just over a year ago, executive director and CEO Linda Grass sought to reassure women in the area that maternity services would continue to be a staple of Jeanes Hospital.
"At Jeanes, we are committed to being the maternity center of choice for the Northeast," Grass wrote in a Feb. 9, 2006 letter to the Northeast Times editorial page. "We believe that no expecting mother should have to travel several miles out of her way to give birth. . . . We are looking forward to serving our Northeast mothers and their families for many years to come.
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03/01/2007
The most obvious advantage of doctors wearing white coats is that they stand out among others in a busy hospital, which can help avoid confusion. This theory is supported by a survey in which a significant number of people said that white coats made it easier to identify doctors. Among the 276 patients and 86 doctors, the popularity of white coats was much higher (almost double) amongst patients than medics, with some people holding the view that they pose a risk of infection.
For or against?
Attitudes towards white coats also seem to vary with age.
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03/01/2007
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! Now hurry before they think you've left!"
She scuttles off to the nurses' station for the second time. Some five hours ago, the nurses checked her vitals, so we think this time she's won time with a doctor. The joke's on us. They simply check her vitals again.
My mom got an abnormal EKG reading the day before when she went to get her high-blood-pressure meds refilled at a clinic. The doctor also noticed that her thyroid was swollen and urged her to immediately go to the hospital to get a referral to a specialist.
My 53-year-old mom has no health insurance.
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03/01/2007
Trauma Telemedicine, a technology that gives emergency room doctors in Bisbee real-time connection with trauma doctors at University Medical Center in Tucson, was installed recently, a major step in an effort to expand healthcare in rural communities.
"Bisbee is part of the second trauma medicine network in the country to use this cutting edge technology," said Joe Marshall, manager of Copper Queen Community Hospital's diagnostic imaging department who also serves as the hospital's new teletrauma coordinator.
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03/01/2007
By: Tony DeFrance, M.D.
Cardiovascular CT angiography (CCTA) has become one of the hottest areas in both radiology and cardiology and is a growing application for CT imaging in general. The proliferation of meetings, symposia, and lectures at conferences of the American College of Radiology and the American College of Cardiology dedicated to CCTA is unprecedented.
More than 800 physicians attended the first annual meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular CT. Radiology and cardiology groups, as well as hospitals, are buying 64-slice CT scanners at an incredible rate.
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03/01/2007
Treatment errors are common, finding someone in charge can seem impossible, and patients sometimes wind up sicker than when they arrived. And here's a tip: Try to avoid hospitals late at night and in July.
"Oops, wrong kidney."
In recent years, errors in treatment have become a serious problem for hospitals, ranging from operations on wrong body parts to medication mix-ups.
At least 1.5 million patients are harmed every year from being given the wrong drugs, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. That's an average of one person per U.S. hospital per day.
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03/01/2007
In the years 1948-1954 thousands of Jewish children were taken, sometimes forcibly, from their biological parents while in hospitals or child-care homes.
The leader of the Yemenite children's movement, Rabbi Uzi Meshulam, was imprisoned for trying to get the truth out. He was cruelly tortured by the Shin Bet Israeli intelligence services and later returned home in a vegetative state from which he has not emerged. He revealed that the kidnapped children were sent to America to die cruelly in nuclear experiments. The American government had banned human testing and needed guinea pigs.
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03/01/2007
Vanessa Perez held her 1-year-old son, Oliverio Perez III, as he was seen by emergency room nurse Ernie Brown on Wednesday at Providence Memorial Hospital. Oliverio was showing flu-like symptoms. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)
Texans are coughing, sweating and sniffling because of a late flu season that is keeping doctors' offices busy and pharmacies bustling.
Although the flu has been making residents sick since the fall, it is now hitting the region hard, several weeks after its typical January peak.
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02/28/2007
Insurance Woes
I know I'm beating on a dead horse here, but I have to point out that when hospitals are charging insurance companies of breaking (obliterating is more like it) RICO rules then maybe, just maybe, some people should quit saying that options like acupuncture and herbs are driving up the costs of health care.
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