A premier Manhattan hospital is turning a cancer-treatment floor over to a world-famous fashion designer in the hope that serendipity, science and intuition will help in the healing process. A foundation run by Donna Karan, founder of the DKNY line of clothing, has donated $850,000 for a yearlong experiment combining Eastern and Western healing methods at Beth Israel Medical Center. The Karan-Beth Israel project will have a celebrated donor turn a hospital into a testing ground for a medically controversial notion: that yoga, meditation, and aromatherapy can enhance regimens of chemotherapy and radiation.
New evidence has emerged of a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage, according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers. Some insurance executives expressed surprise at the size and prevalence of the disparities, which can make a woman's insurance cost hundreds of dollars a year more than a man's. Women's advocacy groups have raised concerns about the differences, and members of Congress have begun to question the justification for them.
There has been much concern about corporate influence in the doctor's office that's been criticized when the pharmaceutical industry entices doctors to prescribe brand-name drugs. Under pressure, the industry has since reined in its promotional efforts.
But insurance companies are allowed to push doctors toward cheaper prescriptions, frequently by offering the physician a form of bonus, a cut from the savings that insurance companies get when doctors prescribe generic drugs.
In the first national survey of patients' experiences, many hospitals were found wanting in key areas such as pain management and discharge instructions. Almost one-third of patients gave low ratings to pain management, and one-fifth gave low ratings to communication at discharge. For the study, a Harvard team reviewed data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. Of the 4,032 hospitals that report quality of care data, 2,429 reported patients' experience.
Despite the dour economic times, U.S. Rep. Lee Terry, R-NE, said there is little enthusiasm in Washington, DC, to cut spending on cost-effective programs like eICU, which uses broadband to connect America's rural hospitals with off-site medical experts.
"I'm not worried about that at all," Terry said last week from Omaha, where he presented a federal grant for $384,000 to Alegent Health's eFocus Monitoring Center. If the money's not there, he said, Uncle Sam will use the credit card.
"The emergency spending on the economy is going straight to the debt and we aren't offsetting that," Terry told HealthLeaders Media. "If we were forced to offset it we would have to look within the budget. No one in Congress is saying now we should go in and cut the budget.
"Healthcare reform is a priority in Congress and you are going to see a renewed discussion on it with whoever comes into the White House next year," said Terry. "These are the low hanging fruit that we are all going to embrace in the medical reform area."
Terry's assurances should be taken with a grain of salt. He doesn't speak for Congress. He is a minority member of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. And he was commenting in a room full of influential constituents, all of whom care deeply about improving healthcare access in rural America.
But, he also makes a good point. Money spent to improve rural healthcare is money well-spent. Since 2001, the federal government has funded $7.1 billion on all broadband programs, about $89 million a year. Hospitals are only one of many rural constituencies that benefits from the programs, along with schools, police and sheriffs departments, and local governments.
"If we can empower our rural communities through access of technology, especially through broadband, it really unites urban, suburban, and rural areas into one," Terry said. "We lack in rural areas the physicians and experts for our critical care centers out there and this is a way to bridge that gap."
The USDA Rural Development Grant will be used to connect Alegent's Community Memorial Hospital in Missouri Valley, IA, to eFocus, making it the sixth Alegent hospital in the program. By next summer the remaining three Alegent hospitals will have eICU capability.
Alegent officials are giddy with excitement. "How cool is this to have rural hospitals looking at the next generation of healthcare delivery," Mark Kestner, MD, Alegent's chief quality officer, said at press conference announcing the grant.
"This will allow the air traffic controller (the off-site physician) to look at the screen and analyze data while the pilot, in this case the bedside clinician, manages the immediate care. It's not a solution to the physician shortage but it does help us going into the future as far as coordinating care."
Kestner said Alegent is already looking to expand eFocus "beyond the walls of the ICU." By next summer, the health system hopes to provide broadband access to pharmacists, who can provide 24/7 analyses of drug-drug interactions, appropriate dosing, and potential toxicities. Beyond that, Kestner says, Alegent is looking at eFocus potential for other disciplines like infection control surveillance and case management research.
Government gets legitimately rapped for wasting taxpayers' dollars. Not this time. When cost-effective, well-targeted grants are awarded to conscientious and innovative entities like Alegent, good things happen and everybody wins.
It is hard to imagine any other program that gets this much bang for the buck. It's heartening to learn that at least one member of Congress knows that, too.
John Commins is the human resources and community and rural hospitals editor withHealthLeadersMedia. He can be reached at jcommins@healthleadersmedia.com.
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media Community and Rural Hospital Weekly, a free weekly e-newsletter that provides news and information tailored to the specific needs of community hospitals.
Patient social networks have become a new niche. Since health is often sensitive and private—and not something people want to discuss on general social media sites with all of their friends and colleagues—the ill often seek social networks that can connect them to someone else who can relate.