Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is near the top of President Barack Obama's list of candidates to head the Health and Human Services Department, a senior administration official said. Other candidates, including former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, remain in the mix. A decision is not imminent, a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Christopher Gessner, president of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, is mystified and upset by state budgeting practices. He can't understand why his hospital is set to lose all $445,000 of its state funding in Gov. Ed Rendell's new budget, while a similar medical facility, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is only losing $44,000. "We'll be taking a direct hit," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I'm puzzled. This is frustrating. All we want is parity with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We don't have it right now."
Both the House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus package include $20 billion for electronic medical records, a sum expected to spur the conversion to save costs, improve the quality of care and add information technology jobs, especially in the San Franciso area. While a relatively small part of President Obama's roughly $900 billion plan to jump-start the economy, the funds amount to the largest infusion of cash the health IT industry has ever seen.
Ever since Hurricane Katrina, Charity Hospital has been an emblem of misery for New Orleans. Nearly 3½ years after the flood ended, Charity is still empty. Plans to replace the hospital with a new one are stalled. Instead, Charity has become perhaps the most notable symbol of the languid pace of government efforts to rebuild or replace billions of dollars worth of public works wrecked when Katrina and Hurricane Rita hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. Among thousands of projects that still haven't moved forward, none has been as big or contentious as Charity.
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center shut down its rooftop helicopter pad, months after exhaust fumes began leaking into the new hospital's ventilation system. The move came one month after state officials began investigating complaints. County-USC's ventilation system problems were apparent soon after the hospital opened in November, said Pete Delgado, the hospital's chief executive.
Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital itself is the most likely source of the Legionnaires' disease that has sickened four patients since Jan. 1, but results from water tests inside the hospital will not be ready until February 9. All four patients are responding well to antibiotics, hospital spokeswoman Denise Simpson said.
Susan Lance, MD, a Georgia epidemiologist, said the patients diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease appear to have no ties other than their treatment at Grady. State and federal public health officials are helping Grady Memorial Hospital track down the source of the bacteria.