New standards set by The Joint Commission will soon require hospital administrators to adopt codes and procedures to handle disruptive behavior. This is raising ire among doctors, who say that such policies are often too vague and could be used against them.
An estimated 25% of Hispanics in the United States don't have a regular healthcare provider to treat their medical needs, and these people tend to be the newest immigrants and those without health insurance, according to a survey. One key finding of the survey was how many Hispanics lack a a regular provider to supply medical care, which could pose problems because rates of diabetes are high among Hispanics.
Bypassing closer hospitals to rush people with blood clots or bleeding in their brains to specialty hospitals is an increasingly common way to deliver the most advanced stroke care as soon as possible. The treatment model is similar to the one developed to help save the lives of those severely injured in accidents or by violence by passing local hospitals to reach one of the 255 U.S. trauma centers. The idea behind the specialty center trend is the belief that staffs in such facilities move faster and perform better than those in other hospitals, making up for any extra minutes a patient spends on the road.
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh opened in 1890 with just 15 beds, and grew over the years into a large, renowned teaching hospital with more than 260 beds. In 2009, the hospital takes another big step forward with a two-mile move from its old hospital complex into a new $625 million medical campus currently under construction. Hospital leaders say the 10-acre campus , which includes a 900,000-square-foot hospital and 300,000-square-foot research center, is being built around putting families first, improving quality, taking advantage of all the latest technology, and enhancing research.
Hospitals in nearly half the states in the nation now say they won't bill patients for medical mistakes, including operating on the wrong body part or the wrong person, or giving someone the wrong blood. The list has more than doubled since February, when an analysis showed that hospital associations in 11 states urged their members to waive payment for "never events." It's not clear how many private patients or their insurers are still billed for medical mistakes, but a recent study by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimated that preventable errors that occur during or after surgery may cost employers nearly $1.5 billion a year.
A patient having heart pacemaker surgery at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis was burned on her face, lips and shoulder when a fire burst out from under the sterile drapes covering her body. State health investigators found that the hospital violated safety and procedural policies that contributed to the incident. Abbott reported the incident to the Minnesota Department of Health, and the report said that doctors and hospital staff involved in the incident have been "re-educated" on safety protocols.