Half of all emergency room patients waited 30 minutes or more before being examined by a doctor in 2004, a 36 percent increase from a median wait time of 22 minutes in 1997, according to a study by researchers at Harvard Medical School. The trend is a potentially deadly result of the shrinking number of emergency departments and rising demand for emergency services, researchers said.
When a veteran John Hopkins safety researcher assembled a checklist of proven safety procedures and required critical care doctors to use it, the results prevented infections and saved lives. The checklist, however, drew critical scrutiny from government regulators. The federal Office of Human Research Protections said using a safety checklist--and studying its effects--amounted to conducting an experiment without a patient's consent. Researchers say the dispute could delay similar safety initiatives nationwide.
The video shows a disheveled, unshaven CNN Headline News host talking about a hemorrhoid operation gone wrong. The video of Glenn Beck has rapidly became an Internet sensation, fueling his new crusade against healthcare practitioners who don't care.
Milford (MA) Regional Medical Center will open a treatment center in collaboration with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The Milford facility is part of a growing trend among city hospitals to expand their reach, bringing their services to more convenient locations for patients. The new cancer center will provide comprehensive services and progressive technology for residents in 20 communities.
Two community hospitals in working class Newark, NJ, neighborhoods will be shuttered by a Pennsylvania-based healthcare company that is also absorbing the larger St. Michael's Medical Center in the city's downtown. The three hospitals have been losing $6 million a month, but city officials described the closings as a betrayal.
Britain prime minister Gordon Brown is lobbying for overhauling the country's organ donation system to make it easier for doctors to remove body parts from deceased patients without prior consent. Brown noted in an opinion piece that more than a thousand people die in Britain each year waiting for organ transplants, and switching to a different system could save thousands of lives. Patients' rights groups are skeptical about the plan.