An ongoing shortage of nurses and other healthcare workers across Canada has led some rural community hospitals and other health facilities to down-size their services or temporarily close for short periods of time because they do not have the staff to cover shifts. The trend is forcing rural healthcare employers to find creative ways to attract nurses to rural areas.
In response to the number of patients seeking medical and surgical care overseas increasing in recent years, the American College of Surgeons studied the issue and developed an official "Statement on Medical and Surgical Tourism." The ACS statement "was developed with the patient's interests in mind," according to James Unti, MD, FACS, a medical associate with the ACS Nora Institute for Surgical Patient Safety.
President Obama appeared to put his faith in pledges from some of the healthcare interest groups that have pledged to cut the rate of growth of national healthcare spending by 1.5 percentage points each year—an amount that's equal to over $2 trillion. Administration allies cheered the news that the health lobby is eager to join reform negotiations, but many offered a cautionary note that warm words from the industry cannot be mistaken for enforceable policy change.
As walk-in clinics at retail stores offer convenient alternatives to doctors' offices and hospital emergency rooms, some hospitals are fighting back with walk-in clinics at some of those same retailers. Many primary-care doctors still denigrate the retail clinics as cheap, unworthy competitors, but hospitals see the clinics as a way to reach more patients and expand their business. And they argue that as President Obama and Congress warn of a shortage of primary-care physicians, the hospital-linked retail clinics are filling a vital public need.
Attorneys for shareholders asked a judge to make HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy pay $2.6 billion for his alleged role in the huge fraud that nearly ruined the rehabilitation company. A civil lawsuit, filed by stockholders on behalf of the company, seeks to make Scrushy repay HealthSouth for salary, bonuses, and stock deals during the years of the fraud, plus other items like hundreds of personal plane flights for him and his family, and breast implants for a female singer he was promoting.
Analysts predict a report will show that the Social Security and Medicare trust funds will run out of money sooner than projected a year ago. The worst recession in decades and resulting high unemployment will lead to a bleaker forecast for both Social Security and Medicare in this year's trustees' report, analysts say.