A year-long study at a Minneapolis nursing home showed that focused care by a team of University of Minnesota medical specialists cut the number of older short-term patients who were rehospitalized by 20% to a rate 33% below the national average. The savings from such a program could be huge: High rates of rehospitalization cost the federal Medicare program more than $17 billion, a recent study estimated.
Residents in Miami-Dade County (FL) who don't have health insurance can sign up for a new plan aimed at helping the estimated 600,000 uninsured in the county. Called Miami-Dade Blue, the program went into effect July 1 and is a joint venture between the county and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. Miami-Dade officials estimate there are 600,000 uninsured people countywide. Of those, 80% work but cannot afford health coverage.
The longtime executive officer of the embattled California Board of Registered Nursing resigned today, a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced more than half of the panel. Ruth Ann Terry had been the appointed executive officer for nearly 16 years and had been on the staff of the board for 25. Terry's decision and Schwarzenegger's actions follow an investigation which found that the board often takes years to investigate and discipline nurses accused of egregious misconduct.
A former Army surgeon at the heart of a scandal over allegedly falsified research gave a lecture last December on "ethical business practices." Copies of slides used in the Dec. 13 presentation by surgeon Timothy Kuklo were included in a packet of information sent by Washington University to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley. The university says Kuklo failed to inform it of his financial relationship with Medtronic in 2007 when he was conducting research on one of the company's big-selling spine products.
A criminal investigation has begun into the death of a patient on a waiting room floor at a New York City-run hospital in Brooklyn last year, the Brooklyn district attorney said. The district attorney said that a grand jury had begun an inquiry into the death of Esmin Green, 49, who died early on June 19, 2008, about 24 hours after arriving by ambulance at Kings County Hospital Center's psychiatric emergency room.
GE Healthcare and global eHealth specialist InterComponentWare, Inc. have signed a strategic agreement to integrate and co-develop their health information exchange solutions. Through this relationship, GE Healthcare and ICW will leverage their existing solutions and co-develop new offerings for the health information exchange and global eHealth marketplace, according to a release.