U.S. medical schools are increasingly plugging geriatric courses into their curricula and adding specially trained faculty members as they respond to an imminent boom in the number of older Americans and the need to better understand how to properly care for the elderly. Out of 800,000 doctors in the United States, roughly 7,000 are geriatricians. The country needs another 13,000 to adequately care for today's older population, according to the American Geriatrics Society, and the shortfall could reach 36,000 by 2030.
CheckUps, an operator of walk-in medical clinics, has shut down 23 of the clinics operating in Wal-Mart stores in Florida and three other Southern states. CheckUps fell behind in paying its nurses and other vendors late in 2007 after running short of cash to meet its bills, according to a lawyer for one of its creditors. Wal-Mart has leased space to about 80 clinics in stores across the country, and company representatives said it hoped the CheckUps clinics would not stay vacant for long.
Susan Ryan, the administrator of Kaiser Permanente's Fresno, CA, hospital, has resigned. The decision comes days after a federal report criticized the way the medical center responded to complaints about a doctor who handled high-risk pregnancies. The review was the latest in a series of critical assessments of the nation's largest health maintenance organization.
The gap between the proliferating use of use of remedies such as herbals and the limited knowledge about their effects is a big part of the current debate about alternative medicine. But because alternative treatments are increasingly part of personal health choices, some doctors are taking steps to bridge the knowledge gap.
The interim chief executive officer of the former Aliquippa (PA) Community Hospital described mass employee firings earlier this month as "gut-wrenching" but said it was a cost-cutting move crucial to the debt-burdened facility's survival. The CEO added that there are an average of only 25 to 27 inpatients each day in the 96-bed facility, which has been renamed Commonwealth Medical Center.
St. Luke's Episcopal Health System and affiliate Kelsey-Seybold will soon open an emergency center and medical clinic in northwest Harris County, TX. The initial phase of the 40-acre project will be open in late spring, and the health system also hopes to build a community hospital on the site. The projects will advance St. Luke's strategy of expanding into Houston's suburban areas.