A Portsmouth attorney says he is representing a client who claims he was infected by the hospital worker, currently jailed on charges he allegedly infected patients with hepatitis C, two years earlier than federal prosecutors have alleged. Portsmouth attorney Michael Rainboth said last night that a Baltimore veteran is his newest client, and that the man claims he was infected with hepatitis C by traveling medical technician David Kwiatkowski in Maryland in 2008—a full two years prior to when prosecutors have said Kwiatkowski tested positive for the potentially fatal liver disease in 2010.
The share of young adults without health insurance fell by one-sixth in 2011 from the previous year, the largest annual decline for any age group since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began collecting the data in 1997, according to a new report released on Monday. The estimates are drawn from a federal survey of about 35,000 households. It did not ask how the newly insured obtained coverage, but the study's author, Matthew Broaddus, a research analyst at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the increased coverage for young people was almost certainly due to a provision in the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act.
At Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, since mid-July, Dr. George Branovacki, an orthopedic surgeon, has performed more than a dozen knee-replacement operations with the iPod, which he said gives much more precise measurements in making incisions and placing the replacement knee. The result, he said, is less pain and swelling for patients, better range of motion and a longer life for the artificial knee. What he's using at Christ Medical Center is called Dash navigational software. The federal Food and Drug Administration approved the iPod-based technology in 2011, and Christ is the only U.S. hospital using the system, according to the company.
Two University of Miami Hospital employees may have stolen and sold information from thousands of patients who visited the facility over a 22-month period, the medical school announced late Friday afternoon. A press release stated UM learned of the breach from Miami-Dade police on July 18. "The two employees were terminated immediately," the release stated, "and the university has taken steps to help patients who could be affected safeguard their personal information." A UM website said the employees "admitted improper conduct" and that the investigation is continuing.
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare is making a hard push into the northern suburbs, planting its flag firmly in a market dominated by a pair of established competitors before President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul is implemented. Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group, the hospital system's wholly owned primary-care doctors' group, plans to open nine new clinics by spring 2013 from Chicago's North Side to near the Wisconsin border.
Independent Health and 140 primary care doctors rolled out a new program last week that they hope offers a vision for changing the way basic medical care is provided to 72,000 patients in the region. This alliance of Independent Health and the 140 physicians, called the Primary Connection, reflects one of many examples here and nationwide of the healthcare system attempting to reform itself even before major elements of the Affordable Care Act, the federal health reform law, take effect.