Advocates for Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta are protesting the planned appointment of several prominent Atlanta businessmen to the new nonprofit hospital board. The activist group said some proposed board members have conflicts of interest and are not concerned about the hospital's poor patients. The existing board will soon announce members of the new nonprofit board, which will have power over decisions regarding budget, policy and the hospital's top managers.
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that widespread screening of patients for MRSA in a Swiss hospital did not reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections and wasn't cost effective. The results are sure to fuel an ongoing debate in over how best to control the growing epidemic of MRSA infections. Some experts believe hospitals need to test large numbers of patients and isolate and treat people who prove positive, but other experts argue this approach is inefficient.
Groups representing most of the nation's hospitals are suing federal health officials to block the enactment of regulations that would restrict federal Medicaid payments so they don't exceed the cost of providing care. Hospital officials say the rules would make it harder to offset the expense of treating the uninsured, and threatens their survival. The lawsuit, which will be filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, would bar federal health agencies from enacting the regulations.
The Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a child advocacy group, wants to keep Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH, from putting clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch's name on a new emergency room. Abercrombie has pledged $10 million toward the construction of the emergency department at Nationwide Children's. But the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood says Abercrombie has earned a reputation for risque catalogs and promotional photography featuring scantily clothed models, and as a result should not be promoted by a children's hospital.
The Service Employees International Union was hoping to unionizing 8,300 workers at nine Ohio hospitals through upcoming elections. But now organizers from a rival union, the California Nurses Association, has begun pressing the workers to vote not to join the SEIU. As a result, the service employees has asked to postpone the vote by workers at the nine hospitals, all part of the Catholic Healthcare Partners system.
Farmers and ranchers spend more money on health insurance than most Americans, according to The Access Project, a research organization at Brandeis University in Boston. A survey found that one in four producers have financial problems because of the cost of health insurance. The researchers' sample included more than 2,000 farmers and ranchers in North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota. According to the report, families who farm and ranch in those states are at a disadvantage to other families because they often have to purchase health insurance in the individual market.