State lawmakers on Tuesday considered a proposal that would give them more control over UNC Health Care and require the hospital system to provide more indigent care. The legislation would put the UNC Board of Governors in charge of UNC Health Care; require the hospital system to obtain legislative approval for most business transactions, including any expansion or purchases; require more public disclosure of the system's finances; require UNC hospitals and clinics to provide a proportional amount of care for low-income patients in counties where they're located; and change the system's mission from patient care and medical research to focus on training doctors.
The hacking of a Utah server containing Medicaid data has exposed a weakness—and a double-standard—in how the state handles sensitive health information. Until now, officials blamed the March 30 pilfering on human error. A state Department of Technology Services employee didn't follow protocol when placing a test server online and hackers exploited a weak password, they said. But on Thursday, they acknowledged data exposed in the breach was not encrypted—in possible violation of federal law. In jeopardy is the personal information of 780,000 Utahns.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services threatened this week to withhold Medicare payments beginning April 27, citing problems that it said pose an "immediate" threat to patients at Adena Regional Medical Center. The 261-bed hospital expects to meet federal requirements by improving staffing and procedures to address violations cited in a March 23 state investigation, said Sybil Miller, Adena spokeswoman. The investigation determined that a lack of security allowed an emergency-room patient to steal a nurse's identification card and wander through secured areas, stealing a laptop computer, drugs and supplies on Feb. 5. The survey also determined that some drugs and medical supplies were left unsecured.
Those who come to discover the beauty of medicine through another path, later in their academic trajectories, find themselves significantly behind—with the gap so large that many are discouraged to try. It's too late to become a doctor, they think. And the mandates keep escalating. In 2015, for example, aspiring medical students will have to endure a new MCAT (Medical College Admission Test): about two hours longer, with new sections on psychology, sociology, and ethics in addition to the previous sections testing physics, chemistry, biology, verbal reasoning, and writing. I could imagine a situation where actually grappling with ethical situations in real life could keep someone from adequately preparing for the ethical section of the exam.
A national watchdog group is demanding that the nation's hospitals—including Jackson Memorial and Broward Health Medical Center—kick McDonald's restaurants off their campuses to "to help curb the epidemic of diet-related disease and to stop fostering a food environment that promotes harm, not health." The move this week by Corporate Accountability International is one of a growing number of aggressive campaigns combat the fattening of America, where two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese, creating medical problems that cost the country more than do cigarette smokers. In a letter to the facilities, the group asked them to be leaders in improving the nation's health.