Memorial Hospital Miramar (FL) has completed its new pediatric unit, which features private rooms, an on-floor pharmacy, separate treatment rooms and a nursing station. The need for the $600,000 unit was driven by area growth and demographics, said hospital officials.
The Bush administration is appealing a groundbreaking court ruling that would permit disclosure of Medicare billing records so patients could compare doctors' expertise and efficiency. Release of such information is advocated by consumer groups, employers and the health insurance industry, but is opposed by organizations representing doctors. Consumer and business groups said they were disappointed by the administration's appeal, but the American Medical Association has petitioned to join it.
Antionette Smith Epps has left Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, according to Los Angeles County Department of Health Services officials. Epps was brought in to help save the Los Angeles medical center, but wound up instead presiding over its closing. Her departure is the latest in a string of recent setbacks in the county's beleaguered public healthcare system.
Sixteen Georgia counties scored F grades in a state report that underscores the high rate of premature deaths among African-Americans. The report details how African-Americans and other minorities generally have worse health and more limited access to medical services than other Georgians. Georgia's Department of Community Health and its Minority Health Advisory Council called for counties and their business, religious, education and healthcare leaders to work together to solve the problem.
When Louisa Lippitt died in 1912, she left $4,000 to Rhode Island Hospital on the condition the money be used to provide a permanent "free bed" for needy patients. A successor to the charity she selected rediscovered her bequest, but the free bed is long gone. Now, Children's Friend and Service is suing to get the healthcare back. Rhode Island Hospital was among many facilities that had "free-bed funds" through which donors could set aside a hospital bed for the poor. In Rhode Island Hospital's case and others, officials say interest from those funds continues to help cover healthcare costs for people who can't afford them, but not through a specific hospital bed.
In an effort to save St. Francis Hospital from closing, the Blue Island (IL) City Council passed a resolution to allow city officials to participate in negotiations to sell the hospital. The resolution was supported by dozens of hospital staffers and residents at the meeting, but the owner of the 410-bed hospital has said it will close. The firm has said it has been approached by parties interested in taking over the financially troubled hospital since the closing announcement.
The Bush administration violated federal law when it restricted states' ability to provide health insurance to children of middle-income families, according to lawyers from the Government Accountability Office. As a result, the GAO says the administration's new policy is unenforceable, and the opinion strengthens the hand of at least 22 states that already provide such coverage or want to do so. At issue is the future of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, is playing the role of referee as the presidential candidates and Congress rev up the debate over the future of healthcare. Orszag's office could play a key role in the fate of the next president's efforts to re-organize the healthcare system. He emphasizes that the biggest driver of rising medical costs is the increasing use of new technology, not simply an aging population.
Some of the sharpest differences in this year's presidential campaign involve healthcare. While the Democratic candidates want to use government as a lever to aid the 47 million uninsured U.S. residents, Sen. John McCain would rely much more heavily on the free market. The Democrats' priority is to cover all, or nearly all, the uninsured. Both Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama would have government set up a marketplace where people could buy coverage from private companies or the government, with subsidies for lower-income earners.
The New York Immigration Coalition and other groups have released a report on the availability of language assistance at city hospitals for non-English-speaking patients. The report says that such help at hospitals seems to have improved since 2006, when state health officials began regulating communication between hospitals and their non-English-speaking patients. Much more still needs to be done, however, particularly regarding languages such as Korean, Haitian Creole, Russian, Arabic and Bengali, the report states.
