AFC Industries has introduced a computer workstation with a small footprint and mobile design designed to accommodate monitors with up to a 42-inch viewing area. The XLCD Cart has features that ensure ergonomically correct placement for a full range of users, suited to the ER and OR environment.
"Dodgeball" is a mobile phone service that informs you of your friends' locations via text message. In the past two years, about half a dozen Dodgeball competitors have launched, including Loopt, Brightkite and Whrrl. Helping to advance the trend, are a raft of GPS-enabled cell phones. Data for these services are hard to come by, said an analyst at Forrester Research, but he estimated that users total "a few million in aggregate."
David Boucher talks about how Companion Global Healthcare is expanding its network of JCI-accredited hospitals and overcoming barriers to medical travel.
As recently as last year, retailers were touting in-store health clinics as the wave of the future, offering basic healthcare at low cost and with fewer hassles than a visit to the doctor's office or the emergency room. But widespread acceptance of the clinics appears to be slow, with many consumers reporting skepticism about the clinics. Many of the clinics have also been hit with operational and financial snags, forcing them to retool or even abandon their strategy.
Rudra Sabaratnam, MD, CEO of Los Angeles-based City of Angels Medical Center, has pleaded not guilty to recruiting homeless people as phony patients and billing government programs for unnecessary health services. He and the operator of a health assessment center are charged with conspiring to receive and pay kickbacks for patient referrals. An indictment says millions of dollars were improperly billed to government programs by City of Angels and two other area hospitals.
Doctors may not discriminate against gays and lesbians in medical treatment even if the procedures being sought conflict with physicians' religious beliefs, the California Supreme Court has decided unanimously. A spokesman for the California Medical Association said it opposes "invidious discrimination" and believes it is "not protected by a claim of a religious belief." The spokesman said he did not know what practical effect the decision would have on doctors and stressed that the group has no position on what the outcome of the lawsuit should have been.
Eighteen California hospitals have been fined by the state for violating laws regarding quality care for patients. It marked the fourth time the department has disciplined hospitals since a state law went into effect in 2007 authorizing the agency to fine them for placing patients in serious jeopardy. All hospitals in California are required to comply with state and federal laws to remain accredited.
For the third time in three years, a prominent medical journal has criticized Merck & Co. Inc. for misrepresenting research on its pain reliever Vioxx. The editors of the Annals of Internal Medicine said the journal's findings may point to a broader problem in the pharmaceutical industry. Drug companies have long been suspected of enlisting doctors in trials solely to get doctors in the "habit of prescribing a new drug," the editors said. These are known as "seeding" trials, and the editorial says such trials pay doctors involved in them to consult with the drug company plus a fee for each patient they enroll.
A Philadelphia jury has decided that three emergency-room doctors from Temple University Health System hospitals were negligent in their care of Yanira Montanez, leaving her blind, paralyzed, and brain-damaged. The verdict was for $11.2 million, including $5.9 million for future medical expenses that can be paid over time. In the medical-malpractice suit against ER doctors,two hospitals, and the Temple health system, Montanez's lawyer argued that the doctors failed to order a CT scan of her head despite symptoms that suggested a brain tumor, including nausea, vomiting, headaches, and periodic numbness in her arms, legs, and face for three days prior to her first emergency-room visit.
State Healthcare Advocate Kevin Lembo is considering asking for legislation that would force health insurers in Connecticut to offer individual policies to consumers under 65 who have medical ailments. Under current Connecticut law, insurers can, and do, refuse to sell individual policies to applicants with chronic health issues. At least five states have "guaranteed issue" rules, which require individual policies to be sold regardless of a person's health. Lembo says he's researching the idea and is considering proposing the system for Connecticut in the next legislative session.
