A 69-year-old Japanese man injured in a traffic accident died after paramedics spent more than an hour negotiating with 14 hospitals before finding one to admit him. The man, whose bicycle collided with a motorcycle, waited at the scene in an ambulance because the hospitals said they could not accept him, citing a lack of specialists, equipment, beds, and staff. It was the latest in a string of recent cases in Japan in which patients were denied treatment, underscoring the country's healthcare woes that include a shortage of doctors.
UnitedHealthcare announced it has signed a long-term agreement with Connecticut-based MidState Medical Center that will enable all members to get care at MidState facilities in Meriden and ancillary care centers in Cheshire, Southington and Wallingford. Before the agreement, MidState's facilities were part of UnitedHealthcare's network for members of commercial health plans. As of March 1, members of the company's Oxford commercial and Medicare Solutions plans can also get in-network care at MidState's locations.
As the Obama administration prepares to spend $20 billion to speed creation of electronic health records, a study has found that information technology efforts so far aren't sufficient to drive the change that's needed in healthcare. The study from the National Research Council concluded that too much emphasis is placed on automating processes, and recommends more focus on how technology can be used to improve outcomes of care by providing physicians and other clinical staffers better information to help them make decisions.
Even before the Senate had a chance to consider his nomination to be secretary of health and human services, Thomas A. Daschle was hard at work pressing President Obama's goal of revamping the U.S. health system. But after Daschle withdrew his name after acknowledging he paid $146,000 in back taxes and interest, Obama must forge ahead without his close friend and Washington mentor. Health experts across the political spectrum described the setback as serious but not insurmountable.
The Florida-based Medical Tourism Association has been enlisted by the UAE to help further promote Abu Dhabi as a premiere medical tourism destination. According to research by Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Abu Dhabi is expected to attract more than 11 million medical tourists by 2010.
British health officials warn that they will soon implement fines to hospitals that treat patients in mixed-sex wards. Hospitals would no longer be paid for the care of patients, should they fail to comply with the law that was put in place 12 years ago. A fund has been established for hospitals to help them upgrade their facilities to ensure single-sex accomodations.