The nurses' union at one of Boston's major teaching hospitals has sued to block a policy that would require nurses to get flu shots. The Massachusetts Nurses Association's lawsuit against Brigham and Women's Hospital filed this week in Suffolk Superior Court comes as state public health officials are leaning on hospitals to improve flu vaccination rates among health care workers. Health care workers can transmit the flu to already vulnerable patients, the state says. Brigham and Women's mandated vaccinations because its worker vaccination rate of 77 percent is far lower than the city's other teaching hospitals. Efforts to boost the rate, including free shots available around the clock, have fallen short, hospital spokeswoman Erin McDonough told The Boston Globe.
Federal prosecutors in New Orleans on Thursday announced charges against two more doctors and five others accused of billing Medicare for home health-care services that were not medically necessary or were never provided. The new indictment comes in a sprawling case against more than a dozen people affiliated with six health-care companies charged with bilking Medicare out of more than $50 million. Last year, six others were indicted. Indicted this week are: Dr. Winston Murray, 62, of Hammond; Dr. Divini Luccioni, 53, of Kenner; Paige Okpalobi, 57, of Slidell; Joe Ann Murthil, 57, of New Orleans; Latausha Dannel, 34, of Laplace; Christopher White, 48, of Destrehan; and Beverly Breaux, 66, of New Orleans.
The intensive care unit (ICU) of Summit Medical Center in Van Buren was consolidated into Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith on Sept. 15, said hospital spokesperson Donna Bragg. Sparks Regional Medical Center is expanding its critical care services to accommodate the growing community need for critical ill patients, Bragg said. In line with that expansion, Sparks Regional Medical Center hired Fiorella Nawar, MD, an intensivist specializing in the care of critically ill patients, according to Bragg. All Summit Medical Center ICU staff were offered positions within the Sparks Health System, Bragg said.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is preparing to roll out "smart chairs" in waiting rooms at a small group of hospitals and clinics. This follows the agency's nearly completed implementation of 6,000 kiosks at 1,000 sites across the United States. The Vitals Chair, designed by the kiosk maker Vecna, is not your typical waiting-room seat. It includes an antimicrobial touchscreen with magnetic stripe, blood pressure cuff, anti-bacterial wipes, thermometer, printer, sensor, and scale -- all of which are FDA-approved, according to Vecna. The wheelchair-accessible seat has one power cord and a network cable but no hard drive, because it does not store data.
Obamacare was supposed to make our healthcare system friendlier to patients, and in many ways it's succeeded. But we still have a long way to go. For almost her entire life, Maria Rogers has been the picture of health. She's worked for years as a personal trainer, most recently at the Beverly Hills branch of the Equinox fitness club. In her off hours, she's competed in long-distance races as a member of the Santa Monica Track Club. She ran the Boston Marathon last year. In May, however, Rogers was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer of the abdomen. She underwent surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and now faces months of chemotherapy.
Hospitals are projected to save $5.7 billion this year as previously uninsured patients gain coverage through the 2010 health care law, the Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday. States that have expanded their Medicaid programs will see about 74 percent of those savings, an HHS report said. While 27 states and Washington, D.C. have expanded the federal-state insurance program for the poor to date, the survey was done when 25 states and D.C. had done so. "This is one of the reasons that we see hospitals and others supporting the expansion of Medicaid," HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said at a briefing with reporters. While the health law required states to expand Medicaid, the Supreme Court made that optional.