Facing a $30 million-plus gap in funding, Grady Memorial Hospital will close two neighborhood clinics and increase prescription drug copays -? threatening access to care for some of Atlanta's poorest residents. South DeKalb Health Center in Decatur and Otis W. Smith Health Center in southwest Atlanta will close within the next 60 to 90 days, and patients will be sent to nearby clinics, said Grady spokesman Matt Gove. Meanwhile, uninsured residents from DeKalb and Fulton counties will see the base copay for prescription drugs rise from $2 to $3, among other copay increases. The hospital is also in the process of cutting 100 jobs.
Medical reviews at Westmoreland Hospital have determined two cardiologists implanted coronary stents in at least 141 patients who may not have needed them, the Tribune-Review has learned. Two teams that included nationally recognized interventional cardiologists determined that 141 patients in 2010 may not have had enough blockage in their arteries to need a stent, according to a letter from the hospital expected to be delivered to the affected patients this week. The hospital is now reviewing the two doctors' 2009 cases and is expected to know the results by May. None of the 141 identified patients is believed to have been harmed, but the hospital is offering counseling and free medical care to all of them as a precaution.
Some 700,000 Americans are taken to the hospital each year after ingesting drugs, both legal and illegal, a new study reports. And the care costs nearly $1.4 billion in emergency room charges alone. The study, published in the March issue of The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, was based on data from the 2007 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, a government database that includes information on 27 million visits to 970 emergency rooms in 27 states. Children younger than 6 had a higher rate of emergency visits for accidental drug poisoning than any other age group, but most of the visits were precautionary.
In the face of challenges facing the entire healthcare industry, Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove this week delivered a message of measured optimism for the 90-year-old institution in his annual State of the Clinic address. The near future is going to be challenging, he said in an interview. "We have entered a period of change in healthcare that has only been seen once before, during the 1968 creation of Medicare." The Clinic's main challenges, Cosgrove says, are not limited to Northeast Ohio: population decline and unemployment, and decreased reimbursement for many services due to healthcare reform measures. "The bottom line is we have to do better with less," Cosgrove says.
The University of Iowa will name a top human resources official to manage its hospital and medical college workforce after the previous administrator abruptly resigned and received a $450,000 severance payment after a short tenure. A UI Health Care search committee met several times in recent months to narrow a pool of 69 applicants to be its next associate vice president for human resources and a hiring decision is expected in the near future. Whoever is selected will replace Chad D. Simmons, a former Kraft Foods executive who had no experience in healthcare or academia before being hired for the job overseeing a workforce of roughly 10,000 full-time employees in January 2009. The university paid consulting firm Witt/Kieffer more than $109,000 for help with the prior search, and Simmons said he was contacted about the job by the firm.
As the U.S. economy continues to move ahead, demand for cosmetic surgery is also on the rise. A new study finds that the number of Americans seeking cosmetic surgery has grown as the economy has rebounded. Women are feeling more confident about spending, so they're investing in their appearance, fighting the sags and bags. CBS News reported on "The Early Show" this could be a sure sign the recession is over. Many who spent the last two years pinching pennies at the pump, clipping coupons, even eating out less are now spending more in an unexpected way -- on pampering and plastic surgery.