The Institute of Clinical Research (ICRI) of India has partnered with Singapore Health in an effort to improve hospital management processes. The partnership will also serve to expose clinicians to more quality educational resources, and ultimately meet the growing needs of medical tourism in the region.
Many health insurers remain reluctant to cover costs for medical procedures performed overseas, citing concerns over issues such as credentialing claims. However, experts say medical tourism is an ever-growing trend. This is prompting more health insurance companies to look into this option for members.
The Philippines could benefit greatly from medical tourism, thanks to its large pool of talented medical professionals as well as its renowned world-class hospitals and healthcare facilitities. An industry that generates an estimtated $40 billion worldwide, medical tourism is growing in popularity among Americans in particular amid an economic crisis.
Across the country, hospital executives and fund-raisers are bracing for difficulty in their efforts to raise money. The new environment is a marked change from recent years, when many hospitals had substantial success in fund-raising. And some hospital systems are already saying they are lowering their expecations.
Four leading advocacy groups representing business, labor, and retirees are starting a campaign to press Barack Obama to enact comprehensive healthcare reform. In a letter to Obama, the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, AARP, and the Service Employees International Union urge that a healthcare overhaul be a priority in the administration's first 100 days. The groups plan to spend nearly $1 million to publicize their cause in newspaper and television advertising in coming weeks.
Wisconsin has a shortage of 374 primary-care doctors, and that number is expected to increase in coming years, according to a report from the Wisconsin Council on Medical Education and Workforce. The shortage is primarily in rural areas, but the report estimates that Milwaukee's inner city could use an additional 20 doctors.
With an uncanny knack for staying a step ahead of his own failings, court records show, Richard A. Brown either resorted to legal action or squirmed silently through loopholes in the regulations governing medical practice in Pennsylvania. He encountered little interference from the state, until he was arrested in December 2001 and pleaded no contest to a felony drug charge in 2003, resulting in five years' probation and suspension of his medical license. But he continued practicing medicine and illegally dispensing narcotics, prosecutors allege. Brown was able to get as far he did because Pennsylvania, according to some, is among the weakest states in disciplining wayward doctors.
With more patients flocking to emergency rooms and ER waiting times growing, the Massachusetts Nurses Association says its members are fending off an increasing number of aggressive patients, as well as their frustrated family members. Nurses say part of the problem is that hospitals have made security guards less conspicuous in an effort to cultivate a more friendly, service-oriented setting. They say the trend comes as ERs are seeing more patients likely to act out because of substance abuse or psychiatric problems.
The head of University of California-Irvine Medical Center plans to step down in March. Maureen Zehntner, 60, has been on the job less than eight months and had served as the troubled hospital's interim chief executive since 2005. She cited personal reasons for her resignation, effective March 6. Administrators will use the four months' notice Zehntner gave to devise a transition plan and form a search committee to find a replacement, said a UC Irivine spokesman.
