Tarrant County, TX, hospitals are scrutinizing their cardiac care in an attempt to expedite the life-saving balloon angiopasty procedure. The goal is to get patients to a cardiac lab for balloon angioplasty quickly, with a "door-to-balloon time" of 90 minutes or less. In Tarrant County, hospitals' performance varies widely, with some reaching the goal less than two-thirds of the time. Baylor Grapevine has the best results, hitting the target for 97% of the 59 patients they treated for that condition, according to 2007 CMS data.
In this article from TIME, the magazine uses numbers to measure American health. The findings are something that should concern all Americans, according to the article.
Parents who take their kids to the emergency room for non-urgent care are doing so because they have concerns and questions about the care and attention they receive at primary care physicians' offices, according to a study. Often, primary care physicians actually refer patients to a hospital emergency department, the researchers found.
Rural areas often struggle with healthcare access and use, but the California counties of Yuba and Sutter stand apart. Almost half of pregnant women in the counties don't see a doctor during their first trimester, the highest rate in the state. About one in 10 don't see a doctor until the third trimester, or even until their deliveries. There are several factors that may contributed to the trend: In addition to high rates of undocumented immigrants and high school dropouts who may not realize the importance of prenatal care, poverty and substance abuse are more prevalent than in most other California counties of a similar size.
Over the objection of nurses, the University of California Regents have unanimously approved a plan to transfer most of UC Irvine Medical Center's pediatric unit to nearby Children's Hospital of Orange County. Although nurses said pediatric services could suffer and tax already overstretched resources, both UC Irvine and Children's Hospital officials touted the "strategic affiliation" as a partnership that would deliver better services to patients.
Washington health officials said they will start tracking MRSA hospital cases and will require hospitals to use federal guidelines in controlling the potentially fatal, drug-resistant bacteria. Department of Health Secretary Mary Selecky emphasized her agency's ongoing actions in controlling the germ. She said hospital tracking of MRSA cases began for the first time in October, through changes in a uniform tracking system. She said her department will analyze the data for trends.