University Hospitals is one of a growing group of hospitals around the country that are integrating therapies such as reiki, acupuncture, reflexology and massage into patient care. Many of the UH patients availing themselves of such alternative treatments are trying them because they have been recommended by their doctors—physicians who not so many years ago would have considered these treatments fringe, if not outright quackery. No longer. As Dr. Francoise Adan, medical director of UH's new Connor Integrative Medicine Network, explained, "We are an academic center, so these are evidence-based therapies."
Hospitals are making little headway in reducing the frequency at which patients are readmitted despite a government campaign and the threat of financial penalties, according to Medicare data released Thursday. More than one in five Medicare patients are returning to the hospital within a month of discharge. "We've put all of this policy effort into this area, and yet we're seeing no movement," said Ashish Jha, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Either we have no idea how to really improve readmissions, or most of the readmissions are not preventable and the efforts being put on it are not useful."
A traveling hospital technician accused of causing a hepatitis C outbreak in New Hampshire previously worked in Maryland and Michigan healthcare facilities, officials said Friday. A spokesman for The Johns Hopkins Hospital said David Kwiatkowski worked in the cardiac catheterization lab at the Baltimore hospital from July 2009 to January 2010. Spokesman Gary Stephenson said the hospital is contacting all patients who may have come in contact with Kwiatkowski to offer them free testing for hepatitis C, a blood-borne viral infection that can cause liver disease and chronic health issues.
Researchers sifted through online information from 432 hospitals across the country and found nearly half marketed robotic surgery for gynecologic conditions such as endometriosis or cervical cancer. A quarter of those hospitals used boilerplate copy from the robot manufacturer Intuitive Surgical, and one in six told consumers that "you owe it to yourself." However, almost none mentioned potential downsides to the technology such as increased operating time or higher cost compared with conventional types of surgery. "Many of the claims that were made by hospitals were not supported by high-quality data," said Dr. Jason Wright, a gynecologic surgeon at Columbia University in New York, who led the new work.
About 20 states, including Arizona, Illinois and Maryland, have shifted all or portions of their prison healthcare operations to private providers in an attempt to cut costs, a trend that is raising concerns among unions and prisoners' rights groups. Officials in the states say the companies—which provide medical, dental, mental and pharmaceutical services—are less expensive than employing state workers, in part because using them saves on benefits and pension costs. Human rights groups, however, say that private operators are not always providing care that is as good or better than what the state could do.
By rejecting the discounted contracts that participating in- network providers sign with insurers, the surgery center chain operated by Bay Area Surgical Management LLC of Saratoga, California, bill insurance companies at their own out-of-network rates, which are 5 to 35 times as much as the in-network facilities charge, and make a killing. The company pays profits to some 60 surgeon-partners at rates of return that often exceed 200 percent a year. The doctors who buy into the centers get the return on their investments plus fees for performing surgeries. Patients pay little—the chain sometimes waives or reduces their co-pays—and high-quality care keeps the chain's reputation intact.