New Port Richey, FL-based Morton Plant North Bay Hospital has started a one-day clinic that focuses on lung cancer, hoping it will cut the diagnosis and testing time for patients. The hospital is starting with lung cancer because of its prevalence and, depending on patient feedback, could eventually start similar one-day clinics for other cancer patients. The clinic works like this: A patient sets up an appointment, either through their primary care physician or through a self-referral. The patient then undergoes a range of tests, such as CT scans and blood tests, that have typically been performed on different days and at different offices.
In the pediatric intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Elizabeth "Betsy" Hunt, PhD, regularly uses simulations to prepare medical students and staff for emergencies, such as cardiac arrests. For Hunt, simulation is all about improving teamwork, communication, and multitasking skills. Her research on resuscitation and critical care medicine led to her appointment as the first director of the hospital's Simulation Center in 2004, when she worked with engineers and architects to design and build the $5 million facility that opened its doors this year.
Hospitals in 23 states have said they will no longer bill patients for so-called "never events." It's not clear how many are being billed for medical mistakes, but a study last month by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that preventable errors may end up costing employers as much as $1.5 billion each year.
Four San Diego area hospitals have been fined $25,000 each after reporting preventable mistakes that killed one patient and injured several others. California health regulators are now also looking into three more cases in which patients were put in "immediate jeopardy."
Most hospitals in New Hampshire are not reporting hospital-acquired infection rates as required under a now 2-year-old law. Now, state legislators are questioning why the state department of Health and Human Services has yet to enforce the law.
Six West Midlands hospital trusts have broken promised to cut in half the number of hospital-acquired MRSA infections, although it's been reported that they have significantly reduced the number of cases.
A national campaign spearheaded by Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona and Covidien Ltd., a health-care product company, is aiming to increase awareness and knowledge about hospital-related infections. The Strike Out Infection program also offers ways to prevent infections.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that last year Utah hospitals committed serious medical errors an average of once every six days. There were 57 "never events" reported, 27 of which resulted in deaths. The state now tracks such incidents after a 2001 study by the Institute of Medicine.
Studies on test animals by New Jersey's Public Health Research Institute have found that Florida-based SinoFresh HealthCare Inc.'s nasal spray killed MRSA in nasal passages.
The latest in an investigation into nine deaths at Marion Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Illinois shows that the management failed to look into questions about the credentialing of Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, the surgeon at the center of the investigation.
