Biological, social and healthcare-related factors are responsible for the ethnic and racial disparities in results for U.S. patients with kidney disease, according to two studies. Healthcare providers can directly address some of these factors, and need to take action to eliminate disparities, say the studies' authors.
Reducing racial and regional disparities will be a major focus of a $300 million initiative to be announced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program targets 14 communities and regions around the country, and seeks to improve the quality of healthcare and eventually provide models for national health reform. Researchers say that one major goal of the project is to cut down on hospital admissions for certain medical conditions.
Although 4 million American women give birth annually, almost no one is developing medications for complications of pregnancy, including conditions that threaten the lives of mothers and children, experts say. There are so few effective drugs for pregnancy-related conditions, they add, that in many cases, doctors can save their patients only by delivering babies early.
At leading medical centers, patients in intensive care units are often managed by doctors specially trained to provide that care—but a new study raises questions about the benefits of that treatment. Patients managed by critical care physicians were at greater risk of dying than patients managed by doctors who lacked that training, according to researchers who examined data from 123 U.S. intensive care units. The results were immediately challenged by the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and researchers acknowledged that more study is needed.
Hospitalized children suffer too many infections and other preventable complications that extend their stays and cost millions, according to a study released by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Researchers found that some complications occurred in up to 4% of children treated at 38 children's hospitals nationwide, and that children are three times more susceptible to infections in hospitals compared with adults. Better hand washing, sterilization, preventive antibiotic treatments and other safety techniques can help reduce hospital-based infections, according to researchers.
Eight hospitals in the Seattle area have promised to change their food to make it healthier for patients, staff and visitors. The hospitals have signed a Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge which "redefines healthy food beyond nutrition to include community and environmental health," said Holly Freishtat, Sustainable Food Specialist for Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.