The success of medical tourism relies on trust, according to Lee Sang-jun, president of dermatology and cosmetic surgery clinic Anacli, located in Korea. Many patients are hesitant and sometimes fearful of receiving medical care in foreign countries. To relieve this fear, he says, it's important for physicians to use care in establishing trust with patients and making them feel comfortable.
Maryland district court officials want to give defendants in debt collection lawsuits new access to legal help and change the way that settlement conferences are handled, in response to criticism that hospitals and creditors often have an unfair advantage. The courts are responding to an investigation into hospital debt collection practices published by The Baltimore Sun and a University of Maryland law school study that found defendants are confused by the court process, do not understand that they sometimes have legitimate defenses, and assume that they must accept whatever terms are dictated by hospital lawyers in settlement conferences.
Hennepin County Medical Center, Minnesota's biggest safety-net hospital, is cutting 100 jobs and freezing capital spending at a time when demand for its services is growing. HCMC blamed the moves on reductions in state funding announced last month. The 100 jobs, which represent 3% of the hospital workforce, will disappear by the end of February. About 80% of them are vacant; the rest will come from a combination of layoffs and reduced hours.
A growing number of workers in 2009 will pay more for health benefits—and in some cases receive less coverage—as their employers grapple with the financial fallout of rising medical expenses and diminished revenue and profits, recent surveys of human resource officials show. The Corporate Executive Board found in its survey that a quarter of officials from 350 large corporations said they had increased deductibles an average of 9% in 2008. But 30% of the employers said they expected to raise deductibles an average of 14% in 2009. The economic slowdown, according to analysts, is making it more difficult for many employers to subsidize healthcare costs at previous levels.
Caritas Christi Health Care, a chain of six hospitals owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, said it has reached a wide-ranging agreement with Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. The move makes Caritas the first of the region's teaching-hospital organizations to embrace the union's organizing strategy. For Caritas Christi, the accord guarantees a period of peaceful labor relations. In turn, SEIU receives a promise that management will not interfere with its organizing efforts, making it easier to unionize many of Caritas Christi's 13,000 Massachusetts employees. As part of the agreement, management will allow "free and fair" union elections.
The panel in charge of selling Prince George's County's ailing hospital system is warning Maryland leaders that the economic climate might make finding one buyer impossible and is asking permission to sell the health facilities piecemeal. At its monthly meeting, the Prince George's Hospital Authority agreed to ask the Maryland General Assembly to allow the authority to sell the county-owned system's three hospitals and two nursing homes separately. That could mean different buyers for the more stable hospitals in Bowie and Laurel than for the system's flagship, Cheverly-based Prince George's Hospital Center.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has cited University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Montefiore for deficiencies in its patient assessment and building safety systems when an 89-year-old dementia patient died on the hospital's rooftop in December. A health department spokeswoman said that no penalties accompanied the report of deficiencies, and officials are still reviewing whether to impose any licensing action or fine.
The overall rate of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria has leveled off in Baltimore, but some types of infections remain much higher than in surrounding jurisdictions and throughout Maryland, according to data released by the Baltimore Health Department. While rates have declined in hospitals and among intravenous drug users, infections reported at dialysis centers and long-term care facilities have had only modest decreases. Baltimore officials pledged to devise better strategies for combating infections caused by invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
Republican lawmakers tried to slow momentum for expanding a children's health insurance program by arguing that a bill in the Senate would draw about 2.4 million children away from private insurance into government-sponsored coverage. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, said the legislation does not do enough to limit the State Children's Health Insurance Program to low-income families. He said about a third of those who gain insurance as a result of the bill would otherwise have access to private insurance.
Hospitals in Texas that used computers to keep track of patient records and manage care had lower rates of deaths, complications and costs, U.S. researchers announced. Researchers said patients treated in hospitals that ranked highest in use of health information technology to manage patient records and physician notes were 15% less likely to die compared with patients in hospitals that ranked lower. "If these results were to hold for all hospitals in the United States, computerizing notes and records might have the potential to save 100,000 lives annually," Neil Poe, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who worked on the study, said in a statement.
