White men who arrive in emergency rooms with chest pains get treatments for heart trouble faster than African-Americans or women do, according to a study by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The numbers are not clear-cut evidence of discrimination on the basis of race and sex, said the study's authors. Emergency room responses may be based on evidence that ischemic heart disease is more common among those who get faster treatment, and that chest pains are more likely to have other causes in nonwhites and women, said researchers.
UCLA Medical Center will fire some employees and discipline others for looking at the medical records of Britney Spears, who was hospitalized in its psychiatric ward. The hospital did not say when the snooping took place or which of Spears records were looked at.
Five years after the Unted States invaded Iraq, many Iraqis still lack access to basic healthcare, sanitation and clean water, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Iraqi hospitals lack qualified staff and basic drugs, and their facilities are not properly maintained, according to the agency. Public hospitals in the country only provide 30,000 beds--less than half of the 80,000 needed.
Cleveland Clinic's CEO, Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, whose own research has produced more than 30 patents, recently sat down with McKinsey's Brendan Buescher and Paul Mango to discuss healthcare in the United States, the importance of innovation as the industry globalizes, and the delicate balance among competing interests in the field. Cosgrove is not your usual executive; he spent 30 years at the clinic as a cardiac surgeon before being promoted to CEO, in 2004. Since then, he has immersed himself in the details of his new role, seeking to improve not just the clinic and the health of its patients but also their hospital experience and the future of the healthcare industry overall.
There is a critical shortage of neurosurgeons and hand surgeons in Palm Beach County, FL, and many do not work on-call. As a result, patients in the county with life-threatening conditions or intricate injuries can wait several hours before receiving care. Now a group of doctors, hospital administrators and healthcare officials has decided to craft detailed plans of how a regional on-call system would work in neurosurgery and hand surgery.
Dr. Imad Almanaseer, a member of a powerful state healthcare planning board told political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko's fraud trial that he switched his vote on an $81 million hospital construction project partly because he felt embarrassed and humiliated by another panel member. Rezko, a key fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and millionaire attorney Stuart Levine are accused of scheming to split a $1 million kickback for ramming the $81 million hospital project through the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.