It is expected that fewer patients will be taking Tysabri, used to treat multiple sclerosis, as two more patients have been diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain disease. Financial analysts predict that the drug will have only about 75,000 users by 2013, which is below Biogen Idec Inc.'s goal of 100,000.
As overcrowding becomes a larger issue, Grady Memorial Hospital says it can't take any additional mentally ill patients. Patients, however, have not been diverted, despite a nearly 48-hour wait time for a bed.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation continues to see growth in its admissions, reporting a second quarter net loss of $15 million, down from $30 million last year. As the hospital system has been working to bounce back from financial and legal troubles, its net operating revenue increased by 6.3% over last year.
With a growing physician shortage and crowded emergency rooms, an increasing number of patients are utilizing walk-in urgent care clinics. Staffed by physicians, the clinics provide convenience and more immediate care for injuries and illnesses, and sometimes offer discounts and payment plans.
While the United Arab Emirates have been accustomed to growth and surplus in the past, recent reports of mounting debt, a possible unemployment crisis, and rising inflation are worrying many in Dubai.
Independent community hospitals, which sprang up as religious, ethnic and charitable institutions, were once a hallmark of Greater Cleveland. Now, there are only a handful left as Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals have expanded their reach. Once-independent hospitals in more than a dozen communities are now part of the two systems, and hospital mergers and expansions like these have been happening across the country for more than a decade. They're fueled by the strength numbers give a system when negotiating contracts with health insurers or purchasing from suppliers. And urban hospitals look at the suburban partners with more privately insured patients as a feeder system to the main hospital.
New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation has signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with a medical school in the Caribbean to provide clinical training for hundreds of students at the city's 11 public hospitals. The deal was proposed by a member of the corporation's board who has long worked for the Caribbean school, and has been met by an outcry from New York medical schools fearing that clerkship slots will grow scarcer and that they might have to increase tuitions to compete. Critics worry that the hospital corporation is conferring prestige on a foreign school whose curriculum, they say, is more vocational than research-based and often caters to affluent students who could not get into schools in the United States.
Despite UCLA Medical Center's warnings that it was cracking down on unauthorized access to medical records, the privacy of a "well-known individual" was breached by two nurses and an emergency room technician who called up the patient's computerized records in mid-April, according to a report by the California Department of Public Health. The report also found that nearly twice as many medical center employees as had previously been reported peeked at confidential medical records at UCLA. Nearly 60 additional employees gained improper access to records between January 2004 and June 2006, bringing the total number of workers implicated in the growing scandal to 127.
Two Cincinnati healthcare giants established "a classic kickback arrangement" when they traded patient referrals for free time in a state-of-the-art diagnostic center, says the lawyer for cardiologist Harry Fry, the whistleblower at the center of the case. Fry blew the whistle on a patient-referral arrangement between Christ Hospital and its then-parent network, the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, and the Ohio Heart and Vascular Center. The government has outlined its case against the three organizations in a civil fraud lawsuit that seeks $140 million and possibly treble damages as permitted under federal statute.
Federal prosecutors have asked an appeals court to uphold the convictions of HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, disputing claims that there was inadequate evidence to convict the two men and that the jury was tainted. Prosecutors disputed defense claims that the trial judge failed to adequately investigate e-mails purportedly sent by jurors discussing the case, calling public officials "scum" and pressuring another juror for a guilty verdict. Prosecutors alleged Scrushy bought a seat on the Alabama Certificate of Need Review Board with $500,000 in donations to Siegelman's lottery campaign. The board decides if hospitals can add new services.
