In one of the most far-reaching shortages ever to hit American hospitals, the saline IV bags that are a mainstay of surgical units and patient rooms everywhere are in short supply across the country, according to the Food and Drug Administration and hospital pharmacists. Though patients probably haven't noticed the shortfall, pharmacists are scrambling to make sure they don't. "It puts stress on the system," said Michelle Corrado, assistant director of pharmacy for Hallmark Health System, a regional provider of health care north of Boston, and president of the Massachusetts Society for Health System Pharmacists. "It pulls people's focus away from what they need to be doing."
The chief executive officer of KentuckyOne Health is warning employees of cuts and possible layoffs, saying the company must "improve our performance by $218 million before the end of fiscal year 2015." "We will do our very best to reduce our expenses that do not involve reductions in workforce or reductions in the number of employees," CEO Ruth Brinkley says in a 10-minute YouTube video posted for employees. "However, I do believe that unfortunately, there will be reductions, because we must adjust what we are spending to the amount of money we get for taking care of our patients."
Doctors' habit of copying and pasting notes in their EHRs has come under increasing fire from those who suspect that they're using this method to justify higher charges to Medicare and private payers. In October 2012, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) launched an investigation into this practice, and OIG recently issued a report that said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wasn't providing sufficient guidance to its contractors to detect this kind of fraud. CMS promised to redouble its efforts. Some healthcare consultants believe that the government's crusade is misguided and that efforts to train physicians to use EHRs more effectively would be more valuable.
The chief medical officer during Parkland Memorial Hospital's years-long safety crisis is now overseeing one of the nation's most famous health institutions. Dr. John Jay Shannon was promoted Friday to interim chief executive at Chicago's Cook County Health & Hospitals System. That puts him over John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, inspiration for the television show ER. Shannon has been there less than a year as a high-level clinical administrator. He temporarily replaces the man who hired him. Dr. Ramanathan Raju, who is taking a job in New York, said last year that Shannon's role in Dallas hadn't troubled him.
In the city that calls itself "America's Sweetest Town," the smell of burning sugar cane pierces the 80 degree January air. Steam billows from the 12-story U.S. Sugar Corp. factory that dominates the landscape and the economy in this region, halfway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Some describe the aroma as sweet, others as sour -- a metaphor of sorts for the Affordable Care Act and its impact on this South Florida county that has the state's highest uninsured rate. Thirty-five percent of Hendry County's 33,000 residents under age 65 lack health insurance, according to the latest census figures, much higher than Florida's 25 percent average, which is the nation's second highest state rate.
Being an intravenous nurse involves a lot more than sticking patients with needles. This specialty branch of nursing, with teams in most major hospitals, requires specialized training to install complex central catheters and to operate new technology making them safer to implant and less apt to cause infections. There are 13 nurses on South Shore hospital's IV team, who work 24/7 offering support to 36 departments in the hospital. Clinical coordinator and team leader Irma Sivieri has 10 years experience as a nurse, eight of them as an IV nurse.