When President Barack Obama met with African-American religious leaders at the White House Monday in advance of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, he had a request: He asked for their help in the final push to implement the federal health care law. The president hosted representatives of major African-American denominations in the Roosevelt Room, where they discussed "how civil rights and equality are closely tied to voting rights and closing the gap on education, unemployment, and access to health care," White House said in a written statement. The president asked the leaders for their support this fall in signing up uninsured members of their congregations for health coverage, saying that around 7 million African Americans lack insurance.
At about 8 a.m. Monday, the electronic health record system at seven East Bay hospitals, medical offices and clinics went dark. The meltdown continued through late afternoon or early evening, according to early reports from the California Nurses Association. The incident left doctors and nurses without access to patient information — including medications and patient histories — at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center facilities in Berkeley and Oakland, Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Mills Peninsula Health Services in Burlingame and San Mateo, Sutter Delta in Antioch, Sutter Tracy, Sutter Modesto and affiliated doctor's offices and clinics.
It's been a long and often controversial road, but U.S. doctors are finally embracing a drug that can halt strokes and prevent disabling brain damage. An of more than 1 million stroke patients shows that use of the 17-year-old drug, called alteplase (brand-name ), nearly doubled between 2003 and 2011. The study indicates that use of the therapy jumped from 43 percent to 77 percent over the past decade among those lucky patients who got to a hospital within two hours of their first stroke symptoms and had no disqualifying factors.
Medicare made waves earlier this year by releasing the prices that hospitals charge for the most common procedures. North Carolina now wants to take a step further: Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed legislation last week that will require hospitals to publish the prices that they negotiate with insurers. This data has the potential to be significantly more useful for consumers. The prices that hospitals charge are, essentially, sticker prices. Insurance plans usually negotiate a rate lower than that opening bid. The data that North Carolina will make public is the actual amount that hospitals end up charging health plans for their services.
Surgery can be a necessary misery, endured in hope of health. But what if you took away the misery, and kept the benefits? When hospitals quit subjecting patients to prolonged fasting, nasogastric tubes, abdominal drains, and other commonplaces of surgical care, a study finds, patients feel less pain and recover faster. Women who had major abdominal surgery at the Mayo Clinic under a protocol to enhance recovery went home sooner and needed less pain medication than women who had the surgery the usual way. And 95 percent of the women in the group whose treatment emphasized recovery rated their care as excellent or very good.
Premier Inc. has filed plans for an initial public offering of up to $100 million in common stock, as the hospital-owned health-care alliance aims to raise proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes. The company is owned by 181 U.S. hospitals, health systems and other health-care organizations and upon completion of a planned reorganization, all of those owners will own Class B stock in Premier. Premier's alliance was formed in 1996 through a merger, though the oldest entity of that group had existed in 1969. About 72% of Premier's member owners have been part of the company's alliance for more than 10 years. [Registration required.]