A numbers of patient advocates, including physicians who coach people on how to get better care, are teaching patients how to communicate better with their doctors. This story provides a list of "do's and don'ts."
The Bair Paws hospital gown by Arizant Healthcare not only provides comfort but also an adjustable warmth system that can help prevent hypothermia in many surgical procedures. The single-use gown offers wrap-around coverage with soft, thick material.
Cash-strapped Mercy Jeannette Hospital in Jeannette, PA, is shutting down its obstetrics department and the adult inpatient rehabilitation and behavioral health units. The units will be moved to Excela Health System's Westmoreland hospital.
A Beaver County, PA, judge has cleared the way for the sale of Aliquippa Community Hospital. The hospital should now stay open until at least February 2008.
The Food and Drug Administration is considering allowing pharmaceutical makers to provide doctors with medical journal studies of unapproved uses for drugs. Critics say the move would undermine long-standing restrictions on marketing medicines for "off-label" purposes.
Public attention is once again on MRSA. And hospitals nation-wide are stepping up their fight against all types of infections, especially superbugs that have been found to be more common and more deadly than previously believed. A recent federal report estimated that nearly 19,000 people died in the U.S. in 2005 after being infected with MRSA--more than the number killed by HIV/AIDS.