Several dozen uninsured people were given free surgical care, from colonoscopies to hernia repairs to tonsillectomies, at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco. Dubbed "Super Surgery Session," the medical services were donated by about 84 Kaiser doctors, nurses and hospital technicians. The high-volume surgery was orchestrated by Operation Access, a nonprofit organization launched 16 years ago to mobilize San Francisco-area hospitals, community clinics, and medical volunteers to donate help to low-income people who need surgery but lack health insurance.
A Pennsylvania district attorney says no crimes were committed by officials at a hospital when an 18-year-old man's organs were harvested. Erie County District Attorney Brad Foulk said that he reviewed medical files from Hamot Medical Center in Erie. He says the hospital followed proper procedures when they declared Gregory Jacobs dead and got permission to take his organs in March 2007.
The teen's parents are suing the hospital.
The Los Angeles City Council has cleared a hurdle for the expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, but it is still far from clear when work on the four-story hospital wing would resume. A coalition opposed to the project, formed by neighbors and groups including the Service Employees International Union, has been battling in court to force the city to perform a more extensive environmental impact report that would address concerns about parking and traffic.
Hoping to turn a page on its problem-plagued past, University of California-Irvine Medical Center this week opens the doors to its new state-of-the-art facility. The facility is being observed with restrained optimism given the institution's 15 years of persistent problems, from fertility doctors who stole patients' eggs and embryos to failures in the liver transplant program that led to more than 30 patient deaths.
The rise in the number of patients under observation care is increasing concern in some medical quarters. The number of patients affected by the classification is growing because Medicare and private insurers want only the sickest people to be treated in costly, resource-intensive medical centers.
Troy, NY-based healthcare network Northeast Health has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that managers conspired to keep registered nurses' wages artificially low, in a move that could affect other defendants in the case and four related suits across the country. Northeast Health agreed to pay $1.25 million in the settlement. The company didn't admit any wrongdoing and called the allegations in the lawsuit "completely false and offensive." About 2,500 nurses are represented in the class, and the settlement is subject to court approval.