This editorial from the New York Times notes that while the Times has criticized the Bush administration's weak performance on many important healthcare matters, Bush can also lay claim to some signal achievements in healthcare that Barack Obama can continue and develop further.
First was a failing grade for access to the Florida's emergency rooms, then came a forecast of doctor shortages. And the latest report on mass layoffs in health are is yet another sobering report on Florida healthcare. The final month of 2008 left a lot to chew on for healthcare officials and state lawmakers' evidence of an erosion in the state's healthcare system that isn't expected to improve in 2009.
Some healthcare centers are having to delay hiring and some patients are having to travel longer distances because Idaho inspections are not being carried out, officials say. Twelve dialysis stations at the $1 million Fresenius Medical Care/Hayden Lake Dialysis center have not been used for a year because state inspections have not been done, forcing patients to travel outside the area. The $19 million Life Care Center of Post Falls is facing similar delays because it has not been inspected.
Thanks to video-game technology, realistic rubber skin, fake organs, mannequins, and other simulation devices, budding surgeons at the University of Washington now test their skills in the virtual world. The UW is increasingly moving toward requiring all medical, nursing, pharmacology students and others to master such simulated realities before ever touching a live human being.
A handful of new laws are going into effect across Florida, including one that requires hospitals and healthcare facilities to give patients a good-faith estimate of anticipated charges for planned procedures if requested. They must also post notices in reception areas advising patients how they can get information on charity and discount policies. Another new measure requires the Agency for Health Care Administration to compile data on the non-discounted costs of some 150 common procedures and diagnostic treatments for comparison purposes.
Linda Quick, the president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association, warns that groups she represents are not recession-proof, and that could be very bad for everyone.
By early March, Iowa regulators plan to offer a centralized computer system that will track purchases of most kinds of prescription drugs anywhere in Iowa. The goal is to block the practice of drug abusers who visit multiple doctors and complain of pain or other symptoms so they can receive duplicate prescriptions for powerful medications. The patients then take the prescriptions to a series of pharmacies so pharmacists won't notice they're filling multiple orders for the same person. The system was approved by legislators in 2006, but it has been delayed by controversy and technical complications.
Run by Mt. Sinai Hospital, a Chicago center treats refugee patients exclusively. But differences in culture, religion, and language pose daily challenges at the West Rogers Park health center. Since 1975, about 130,000 refugees have resettled in the Chicago area, and many pass through the doors of the Touhy clinic, which opened in the early 1970s. Except for the physicians, the staff members are themselves former refugees.
A former nurse manager is locked in a high-profile legal battle with the Peoria, IL-based Proctor Hospital. A trial is set for this year after the 7th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago reversed a lower court's decision to dismiss the case. Phyliss Dewitt, whose employment record was spotless, claims the hospital fired her because of her husband's high medical expenses. Experts say more conflicts of this kind are likely as economically stressed employers confront escalating healthcare costs and the reality that a small number of sick employees or family members account for the vast majority of medical expenses.
Pfizer Inc. is joining with two Boston hospitals to test whether computerized patient records can be used in helping federal regulators detect dangerous drug side effects. Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's hospitals are encouraging 30 of their doctors to report serious side effects to the Food and Drug Administration by making the reports part of their normal routine filling out electronic patient charts. If successful, the pilot program could point the way for increasing the number of side-effect reports filed and for improving their quality.
