As part of a new policy that experts say is one of the toughest in the nation blocking pharmaceutical companies from influencing doctors, Duluth, MN-based SMDC Health System has banned nearly every freebie with a drug company name on it. Abolishing all logos from their facilities marks the latest and most drastic in a series of steps many of Minnesota's top healthcare institutions have taken in recent years to limit the doctor-drug rep relationship.
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire is proposing a $3 million program for hospitals, community colleges to train current healthcare workers for nursing jobs. Gregoire says that with the state nursing shortage, nurse assistants, surgical technicians and other workers could be trained on the job and become registered nurses.
Civil rights attorneys have sued Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in connection with the alleged dumping of a paraplegic man on skid row. The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of the man, and seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages against the hospital for alleged elder abuse, negligence and infliction of emotional distress.
University of Illinois trustees have voted to ask the state for $150 million over five years to train future doctors and other health professionals. University leaders also plan to request $10 million to expand and renovate the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center.
With the Nevada caucuses coming, little seems to concern people there as much as healthcare. The state has an unusually high number of people with no insurance, doctors are scarce, and Medicaid reimbursements to providers are low. Nevada's caucuses could turn on how well the candidates address the United States' growing healthcare crisis.
Using e-mail solicitations that promise high pay, US HIFU is trying to build and train a network of American urologists for its offshore prostate cancer treatments. Solicitations state a doctor providing the company's treatments can receive up to five times what doctors earn in the United States for performing prostate cancer procedures. Some doctors worry that the money could sway doctors to recommend the treatment, even though it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.