A top administrator at a West L.A. hospital told transportation and law enforcement officials Thursday night that there is a "serious gap" in their planning and preparation for the mid-July closure of several miles of the 405 Freeway. There hasn't been sufficient efforts to ensure hospital employees will be able to get to work in a timely or predictable fashion during the closure, a problem that could seriously endanger patients, said Posie Carpenter, CAO at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. Carpenter said she came to the meeting to represent the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Westwood, the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, the hospital at the Veteran's Administration and St. John's in West L.A. She estimated about 1,500 employees are working at the various medical centers during each 12-hour shift. Carpenter said she and other hospital officials have tried working with transportation and law enforcement agencies to address concerns about employees making it to work on time, but she said they've gotten nowhere. She said she wanted "to use this opportunity to point out to them, again, their stated goal of safety is not going to be met if they fail to assist the hospitals."
Hospital staff at The Medical Center in Bowling Green, KY separated a man from the woman he is accused of raping and contacted police. "It doesn't surprise me," Warren County Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Cohron said about emergency room staff. "They are always vigilant, especially dealing with victims' issues, and they are always an important part in many of our cases." Darryl A. Galloway, 34, is charged with two counts of first-degree rape, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, attempted first-degree sodomy and fourth-degree assault/domestic violence, according to Warren Circuit Court records. The Bowling Green Police Department was called to the hospital Sunday after Galloway brought the woman he is accused of assaulting to the hospital on the condition that she tell medical staff she was robbed and beaten. Instead, the woman wrote a note on her admitting papers that said "get him away from me please," according to police records. Emergency room staff then took the woman to a room and called police. "Law enforcement and the prosecutorial community has always enjoyed an excellent working relationship with The Medical Center," Cohron said.
The Towson cardiologist accused of placing cardiac stents into patients who didn't need them had a chance to defend himself this week before the Maryland Board of Physicians, which is deciding whether the doctor should retain his license. The board that oversees physicians' licensing and discipline had charged Mark G. Midei, MD, last June with falsifying patients' records so it would appear they needed treatment. Hearings are closed to the public, but Midei's lawyer, Stephen B. Snyder, said the doctor "was able to articulate all the issues before the full board, and I think they were receptive. Midei said before the hearing that he never made decisions on stent procedures alone and did not benefit financially from additional stent procedures. In addition to the board action, the doctor is also facing private lawsuits from patients at St. Joseph Medical Center. He has filed a countersuit against the hospital, contending that it has damaged his career.
St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic has reached an agreement with a Brooklyn-based realty company to sell its Pennington Avenue complex. The hospital, which emerged from bankruptcy protection last year, reached a deal on Monday with D & M Realty of Brooklyn, a hospital spokeswoman said. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Vanessa Warner, a spokeswoman for St. Mary's, said D & M bought the 5-acre property with plans to redevelop the site for residential use. Whether those plans include demolition of the five-story hospital building is unknown. D & M did not return a phone call on Thursday seeking comment. The five-story brick building is the original home of St. Mary's and was built in 1927. It has 514 rooms and two parking lots, plus a gourmet kitchen and restaurant facilities inside. St. Mary's shut down most of the building in 2007 when it moved to the grounds of what was once The General Hospital Center at Passaic.
Early results show that putting doctors and hospitals on a budget — a payment method promoted as a way to curb health costs — has not saved money in Massachusetts, Attorney General Martha Coakley concluded in a report released yesterday. One reason, an investigation by her staff found, is that providers with market clout still appear able to negotiate high payments, just as they do under the traditional system that pays them a separate fee for each procedure or visit. The yearlong review of what six large Massachusetts insurers paid providers in 2009 found that doctors working under the new "global payment'' system — which puts them on a per-patient monthly budget — generally did not cost less than doctors paid the standard way. And in some cases, large doctors groups such as Atrius Health and Mount Auburn Cambridge were far more expensive than physicians paid under the fee-for-service system, despite being put on a budget.
The Obama administration tinkered on Wednesday with recent rules that provide patients more clout in disputes with health insurers, altering the standards in ways that disappointed leading advocates for healthcare consumers. The rules are intended to guarantee patients nationwide the same rights to appeal if their insurers do not cover care that they consider necessary. The federal standards, part of the 2010 law to overhaul the healthcare system, replace a patchwork of separate state policies. The rules allow patients to protest to their health plans and, if that does not work, to take their complaints to an outside arbiter. Health and Human Services officials issued the rules 11 months ago, but they have been working to fine-tune them amid a blizzard of lobbying. Insurers and employers have been urging limited rights to appeal, while consumer groups have been arguing for stronger patient protections.