Kaiser Permanente is contacting 960 mothers whose babies may have been exposed to a healthcare worker who has an active case of tuberculosis. The worker was assigned to the postpartum unit in the maternity ward of Kaiser's San Francisco Medical Center. Kaiser officials say the infection risk for patients is very low, but testing will be provided along with treatment if necessary. Kaiser also is notifying 115 employees who may have been exposed.
Newly built hospitals should have all single rooms because they reduce infections and may reduce medication errors, according to the authors of a new paper. A focus on single rooms would increase construction costs, with one study finding that the cost for building a new ward with only single-patient rooms would be $182 to $400 per patient, versus $122 to $500 per patient for double rooms. But many of those costs are capital costs and would be recouped relatively quickly, say the paper's authors.
When federal investigators visited Tampa (FL) General Hospital to look into how two patients were able to kill themselves within three days, they found other problems. At least five patients had to sleep in the hallway of the psychiatric unit so they all could be watched by one staffer, regulators said. Doing so failed in "providing for privacy and dignity," regulators for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a report. The report threatens to stop Medicare funding in September unless problems are fixed.
Through the efforts of the Patient Advisory Council at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, FL, the facility has opened a resource center for patients and their families. The center recently opened with three computer work stations, a photocopier, fax, and printing capabilities. It was designed to allow patients and their loved ones the ability to conduct research on-site, and to provide a means for them to give others updates on the patient’s condition.
South Carolina's Medicaid program plans to stop paying hospitals for medical errors they make. Representatives from the state Health and Human Services Department said South Carolina officials must resolve some technical questions before stopping the payments, however. South Carolina Hospital Association representatives say the group already has adopted principles encouraging hospitals not to bill for certain mistakes.
To lessen the terror that kids may feel before a scary procedure, some hospitals are incorporating "medical play" for them. Kids make puppets out of tongue depressors, they play a version of bingo in which O stands for nurses and N is for X-ray, and they put bandages on dolls. There are more than 400 such efforts in the United States and Canada, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.