In response to a Las Vegas Sun investigation of hospital care, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals officials have pledged to make public their internal quality measures — and challenged other local hospitals to do the same. The Sun investigation, based on hospital billing data on file with the state, identified 969 instances in 2008 and 2009 in which patients suffered preventable injuries, infections or other harm in Las Vegas hospitals. St. Rose CEO Rod Davis is the first hospital executive to come out in favor of greater transparency. In a meeting last week he pledged to share with the Sun and post on his hospitals’ website cases of preventable harm — known as “adverse” events — that occur at the three St. Rose Dominican Hospitals: Siena, Rose de Lima and San Martin. St. Rose will also publicize the so-called sentinel events it reports to the state. Sentinel events are unexpected injuries that require corrective plans. No facility in the state has ever made them public.
Doctors in the Dallas area and across Texas are threatening to opt out of Medicaid because of payment cuts, which would further damage the state's already uneven delivery of healthcare to the poor. The 1% trim to provider fees that starts Sept. 1 sounds modest. But doctors, insurance industry officials and healthcare experts widely see it as the first of many hits coming to doctors' wallets as Texas' fiscal woes deepen.
Doctors, nurses and technicians at Haiti's most important hospital had not been paid since before the earthquake - causing strikes and staffing shortages, and turning the facility into a dangerously inefficient, rat-infested mess. So in March, the American Red Cross volunteered to donate a small part of the $468 million it raised for quake relief toward supporting their salaries. But the $3.8 million promised to the hospital is only now being delivered after four months of negotiations and red tape. While billions were spent on short-term projects, including medical assistance, doctors' strikes continued and neglected patients at the capital's main medical facility were left to suffer and die.
A surge in emergency room patients needing psychiatric care has strained Carolinas Medical Center's overall ability to provide psychiatric services, according to an internal hospital memorandum obtained by the Observer. The July 2 memo, sent to hospital staff from CMC president Suzanne Freeman and senior vice president James Hunter, said CMC is taking steps and considering long-range plans to accommodate the increase in patients. Those measures include possible staffing additions at CMC's hospitals - where psychiatric patients often come to emergency rooms - as well as a possible "med-psych" facility that would serve psychiatric patients with other medical conditions.
Healthcare workers are being diagnosed with cancers that occupational-health specialists say could be linked to exposure to chemotherapy agents and other toxic powerful drugs that have saved hundreds of thousands of patient lives. An InvestigateWest investigation has found that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Association does not regulate exposure to these toxins in the workplace, despite multiple studies documenting ongoing contamination and exposures. Studies as far back as the 1970s have linked increased rates of certain cancers to nurses and physicians. Occupational-health experts believe that's because when nurses, pharmacists, technicians and, increasingly, even veterinarians mix and deliver the drugs, accidental spills, sprays and punctures put them in close, frequent contact with hazardous drugs.
The information from the government shocked administrators at Edward Hospital. Their doctors were ordering so-called double CT scans — one using injected dye, one without — for patients at far higher rates than other hospitals in Chicago and across the nation. In the process, patients were getting large doses of radiation. The hospital launched an investigation, and physicians began to focus on curbing use of the scans. This is just what the government hopes will happen as it publishes more information on the quality of health care in the U.S., including just-released, first-of-its-kind data about medical imaging. The data release is part of an ongoing effort to shine a spotlight on how well hospitals follow guidelines for care, meet patients' needs and end up saving lives.