A growing number of hospitals provide more than medical expertise. They provide an in-house team of chaplains to calm and support patients and their families. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and simply those in need of human support find counselors to buoy their spirits, help them cope with fear or confusion at why they, of all people, fell so ill. Stanford University Hospital retains five in-house spiritual counselors and more than 200 volunteer chaplains.
When doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center rushed to operate on a baby born last week with a life-threatening heart condition, they faced one giant hurdle: the child's parents. They refused to consent to the surgery, saying it would involve the use of blood products--a violation of their religious beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses.
Nationwide, more than 1,300 hospitals offer palliative care, including 50 percent of facilities with more than 75 beds, according to an analysis by the American Hospital Association. That's double the number of programs in 2000. Today, nearly 30 hospitals in Tennessee provide palliative care, including Vanderbilt, Saint Thomas Hospital, Baptist Hospital and the Department of Veterans Affairs system.
Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester, MA, has hired a consulting team to analyze the institution's business and devise ways for it to improve its financial performance. In recent years, Carney Hospital has struggled financially, in part because so many of its patients rely on Medicare and Medicaid for their insurance. Those government programs typically pay less for hospital services than private insurance plans.
A winter storm a year ago in the Midwest paralyzed blood exports to Alabama. For several weeks, local patients' access to the potential lifesaver was threatened because the state didn't receive other donations to boost the supply. That's when UAB Health System, the state's largest consumer of blood products, decided to take action. Since then, a task force has devised a strategy to increase local donations and to decrease the system's use of blood. UAB Hospital is the country's fourth-highest user of red blood cells.
Autism, which affects one in about 150 children, covers a broad spectrum of developmental disorders. Children with the less severe diagnoses often are educated in "regular" public or private schools. But in Northeast Ohio, parents of children who are most severely affected have two choices nearby, the Monarch and Clinic schools.