Michelle McMahan stole her patients' pain medications so she could take them herself. Diana Bjorneberg supported her drug habit by tampering with syringes and putting patients at risk for infection. Catherine Callaway replaced liquid anesthetics with saline, feeding her addiction while leaving patients to suffer. They are three of the 112 Minnesota nurses who since 2010 are licensed to practice despite having either stolen narcotics on the job, fraudulently obtained prescriptions, or practiced while impaired by drugs or alcohol, a Star Tribune examination of more than 1,000 Minnesota Board of Nursing disciplinary records has found.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. Irked by the growing number of report cards assessing the quality of hospitals, a New York State hospital association has taken this biblical admonition to heart by putting out a report card grading the quality of hospital graders. Five of the 10 report cards that were evaluated were given low marks. "HANYS' Report On Report Cards," published Monday by the Healthcare Association of New York State, used nine criteria to assess report cards issued by government or private organizations. These principles included whether the report card used measures grounded in scientific evidence, whether the data were recent and whether hospitals had a chance to review the findings before publication to pinpoint errors.
Millions of people could qualify for federal subsidies that will pay the entire monthly cost of some health care plans being offered in the online marketplaces set up under President Obama's health care law, a surprising figure that has not garnered much attention, in part because the zero-premium plans come with serious trade-offs. Three independent estimates by Wall Street analysts and a consulting firm say up to seven million people could qualify for the plans, but federal officials and insurers are reluctant to push them too hard because they are concerned about encouraging people to sign up for something that might ultimately not fit their needs.
In Washington, most of the 290,000 people covered by insurance plans they purchased on the individual market received letters this fall telling them that their plans are going away. That's because under the Affordable Care Act, insurance plans must meet new requirements, including limits on how much money patients spend in out-of-pocket medical expenses, and they must cover 10 so-called essential benefits such as preventive care, prescription drugs and maternity care. So all 90,181 people with insurance coverage from Regence BlueShield have learned their plans will be canceled, as did all 60,000 people covered by Group Health Cooperative.
Open-enrollment packets have reminded local employees in recent weeks that the U.S. health-care system is the most-expensive in the world. Employee-benefits consultant Aon Hewitt is forecasting a 6.9?percent increase in overall annual premium costs in the Columbus area next year, with the average total premium cost per local employee reaching $10,777. That includes both the employer's and employee's share. It's the largest local increase in seven years, up from the 3.9 percent increase this year and 4.9?percent increase last year, according to the annual survey.
A sedated woman lay in an Emory University Hospital intensive care bed, surrounded by machines and monitors — including a ventilator, feeding tube and six intravenous solution pumps. Each machine poured out data on treatment and vital signs. It was a lot to keep track of — perhaps too much. Nurses and doctors caring for multiple patients struggle to keep up with every beep and alarm, let alone stop and think about how all the readings may add up. "If you were to ask me, 'What's been going on with this patient for the last minute? The last five minutes? The last 30 minutes?' I couldn't tell you. There's so much data going by," said Dr. Tim Buchman, director of the Emory Center for Critical Care.