Over the past six months, 18 mothers and 19 newborns have become sick with a dangerous bacterial infection soon after being released from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, triggering a state investigation that uncovered serious problems with the hospital's infection control practices. Ten of the infected patients became so ill that they required hospitalization, and two of those had serious complications.
Los Angeles County supervisors have agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the children of Edith Rodriguez, the woman who died after writhing in pain for 45 minutes on the waiting-room floor of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Medical Center in Los Angeles. Rodriguez's death helped to precipitate the closure of the long-troubled hospital after federal regulators determined that staffers had failed to deliver a minimum standard of care.
Officials at Bon Secours Hospital are asking Maryland for $5 million to keep the struggling hospital afloat for a year while they devise a new strategy to offer healthcare to a troubled West Baltimore community. The company and the religious order that oversee Bon Secours have not ordered its closure, but executives say the hospital needs an infusion of cash and a new vision to avoid shutting its doors.
Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health is ending a long-standing policy of turning over accounts of patients who are behind on their bills to an outside collection agency. The move could affect an estimated 35,000 patients with outstanding balances totaling about $70 million at St. Vincent's 17 Indiana hospitals. Previously, St. Vincent had turned over the accounts after the patients' bills were 120 days past due. St. Vincent representatives also said the organization is no longer charging interest on debt.
Shriners hospitals are considering closing a quarter of their facilities as donations stagnate, costs increase, and the charity's endowment shrivels. Officials at the Florida-based organization say it is siphoning $1 million a day from its endowment to balance the budget for 22 hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Meanwhile, they say, that fund has fallen to $5 billion from $8 billion in less than a year because of the sputtering stock market and a charitable giving slump that has hurt philanthropies nationwide.
St. John Health has agreed to pay $13.5 million to settle allegations that it conspired with other hospitals to suppress nurses' pay in the Detroit area. A federal judge in Detroit has set a May 13 hearing to consider the deal. A settlement won't close the class-action lawsuit: Other healthcare providers accused of violating antitrust laws by exchanging information on pay still are part of the case.