Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, uses the Packard Kids Connection Web site to prepare children for their stays at the facility. Nurses at Packard say the high-tech tool is invaluable when it comes to giving kids a sense of control and allaying their fears about the mysteries of surgery. The nurses also see the benefits of the Web site among teen patients, who they say seem more prone to worry and fearing worst-case scenarios.
Low socioeconomic status increases a cancer patient's risk of dying, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Denver. The study found that cancer patients with low socioeconomic status had more advanced cancers at time of diagnosis, received less aggressive treatment, and had a higher risk of dying within five years of diagnosis. Researchers analyzed data on almost 14,000 breast, prostate and colorectal patients in seven states.
Longtime ranchers and conservationists Jay B. and Marsha Starkey have pledged $1-million to the expansion of Morton Plant North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey, FL. The gift is the largest so far to the $49-million project, which will double the size of the hospital campus. The hospital expansion includes construction of a three-story doctors' office building, an expanded sleep disorders unit, outpatient rehabilitation services, a three-story patient wing, a walk-in clinic, and renovations to the emergency room. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2010.
Directors of the Marrero, LA-based West Jefferson Medical Center pulled back the veil on their decision-making after the board drew criticism from several Jefferson Parish Council members for conducting the bulk of its meetings behind closed doors. The group conducted eight out of 21 agenda items in public view at its most recent meeting, although it still saved the bulk of the board's business for a closed session. The Marrero hospital board has gradually relented on a philosophy of restricting access that it tested earlier this year.
Across Washington state, employers' rising healthcare costs are threatening thousands of workers with the loss of any employer health coverage. More than a quarter of Washington businesses say they will drop their health-insurance policies if costs go up 15% more, according to an AARP survey. If 2007's national average 6.1% increase in employer premiums holds, that day will arrive in little more than two years. Two-thirds of the employers surveyed said that if current trends continue, they plan to pass along higher costs by upping employees' share of premiums, deductibles or co-payments in the next three years.
Atlanta has been selected as the site of a $250 million National Health Museum designed to teach visitors about healthier living and serve as a stage for international health events. The National Health Museum has actually been in existence since 1997, but its presence so far has been limited mainly to the Internet and to sponsoring health education events and exhibits.
Some executives at California health insurance providers paid themselves handsomely while their companies were raking in more than $4.3 billion in profits in the last year, according to a report by the California Medical Association. In addition, HMOs spent $6 billion on administrative costs, money which the Medical Assocaition said could have gone toward driving down premiums or better protecting the insured. The medical association is sponsoring a bill to require health plans to spend at least 85% of their annual income from the insured on healthcare.
More than 4,000 state workers swarmed the streets of Springfield, IL, to protest a proposal to hike their healthcare costs. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees would pay $100 million more in healthcare costs during a four-year contract under Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposal, said union representatives. "The healthcare governor who has made healthcare affordable and accessible to hundreds of thousands of Illinois citizens is trying to make it unaffordable and inaccessible for tens of thousands of state and university employees and their families," Henry Bayer, AFSCME Council 31 executive director, told the Chicago Tribune.
A mailing glitch by a Massachusetts agency left 16,000 residents without proper notice that they might be losing their healthcare coverage or information on how to appeal a denial of coverage. The notices were mailed about a month after they should have been sent. In the meantime, some residents may have lacked health insurance, potentially leaving them at risk for enormous out-of-pocket medical bills. MassHealth, the state Medicaid provider, said it would cover medical bills for any resident that was left without coverage as a result.
In this Wall Street Journal blog entry, Sarah Rubenstein notes that with primary-care doctors more frazzled than ever, the number of hospitalists has been growing. But while there are more than 20,000 hospitalists working in this country, there's still some debate over their role in health are, Rubenstein says.
