The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been letting patients grade their hospital experiences, and those “patient experience scores” may give some insight into a hospital’s health outcomes, a new study suggests. Some people have been concerned that patient experience isn’t the most important factor to measure, said coauthor Dr. Ashish K. Jha of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
There aren’t many Alzheimer’s treatment centers that host rock concerts. And trade shows. And weddings, bar mitzvahs, and celebrity birthday bashes. But when the medical staff here at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health calls it quits each evening, the building does a quick costume change to usher in a glamorous nightlife. The product of a liquor salesman’s bold vision and Frank Gehry’s brash architectural style, the outpatient medical center treats some 25,000 patients with an array of neurological disorders each year.
Changes at the University of Mississippi Medical Center could result in higher drug costs for patients without prescription insurance. The hospital participates in several programs that offer discounted drugs to underserved patients, but a change in hospital policy will now allow only patients who see doctors at hospital-based clinics to be eligible.
Even before Scott Steiner started treatment for a rare gastrointestinal cancer that had spread throughout his abdomen, a dangerous side effect threatened his health. His doctor had prescribed the cancer drug Gleevec, but Steiner’s insurance refused to cover its $3,500 monthly cost. Steiner, a warehouse manager for a publisher of Bible-themed literature, and his wife, Brenda, a part-time nurse, made just $30,000 a year. No way could they afford the drug on their own.
White women have been dying prematurely at higher rates since the turn of this century, passing away in their 30s, 40s and 50s in a slow-motion crisis driven by decaying health in small-town America, according to an analysis of national health and mortality statistics by The Washington Post.The Post’s analysis, which builds on academic research published last year, shows a clear divide in the health of urban and rural Americans.
Water tests at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center have turned up hazardous levels of lead every year since 2011, sometimes exceeding the federal limit at which remediation is required by wide margins, state and federal records show. And while federal regulations require public water systems to treat and reduce lead levels that violate the standard in a timely manner, the hospital’s sampling record shows it had repeated violations of lead limits within some of the same 10 locations where it regularly tests the water for lead and copper.