CheckUps, an operator of walk-in medical clinics, has shut down 23 of the clinics operating in Wal-Mart stores in Florida and three other Southern states. CheckUps fell behind in paying its nurses and other vendors late in 2007 after running short of cash to meet its bills, according to a lawyer for one of its creditors. Wal-Mart has leased space to about 80 clinics in stores across the country, and company representatives said it hoped the CheckUps clinics would not stay vacant for long.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to arrange medical insurance for nearly all Californians was rejected by the state Senate. Lawmakers called the plan, which passed the Assembly, "fundamentally flawed" and "a fairy tale." Senators added the proposal might fall apart financially in a few years, leaving the state to cancel its new healthcare services or put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars more. They said it was too risky a financial commitment when California faces a $14.5-billion budget gap that could force them to cut existing healthcare programs--Schwarzenegger has already proposed $2.9 billion in healthcare cuts over the next 18 months.
California regulators are expected to announce that they are seeking as much as $1.33 billion in penalties from PacifiCare as a result of widespread problems stemming from its takeover two years ago by UnitedHealth Group Inc. An investigation prompted by widespread complaintshas uncovered 133,000 alleged violations of state laws and regulations regarding payments for medical care. Physician and hospital groups have praised the action, saying many doctors were still having to fight to get paid on time and what they are owed.
Susan Ryan, the administrator of Kaiser Permanente's Fresno, CA, hospital, has resigned. The decision comes days after a federal report criticized the way the medical center responded to complaints about a doctor who handled high-risk pregnancies. The review was the latest in a series of critical assessments of the nation's largest health maintenance organization.
Howard Stark, MD, has moved most of his Washington, DC, practice onto the Internet--and he couldn't be happier. He and an assistant check e-mail alerts on handheld devices and--between seeing patients in person--on a desktop computer. Since he started his Web-based service two years ago, Stark has received 14,000 e-mails, he says.
The gap between the proliferating use of use of remedies such as herbals and the limited knowledge about their effects is a big part of the current debate about alternative medicine. But because alternative treatments are increasingly part of personal health choices, some doctors are taking steps to bridge the knowledge gap.
Overweight and obese patients have long complained that doctors treat them insensitively and are too quick to attribute health problems to their weight, but their claims of bias were often met with skepticism. But now research is adding to evidence that the problem may be real and may affect patients' quality of care. Doctors' negative views of obese patients, some experts charge, may be helping to drive patients away.
A survey of more than 3,000 doctors, reported in the August 2007 Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, found that doctors lost confidence, were anxious about future errors and had trouble sleeping and reduced job satisfaction when they had been involved in a medical error. Only 10 percent said they thought their institution provided adequate support following an error.
The numbers can be worrisome--1 out of 10 hospitalized patients picks up an infection or suffers some kind of mistake while in the hospital, statistics show. So what is a medical consumer to do?
The interim chief executive officer of the former Aliquippa (PA) Community Hospital described mass employee firings earlier this month as "gut-wrenching" but said it was a cost-cutting move crucial to the debt-burdened facility's survival. The CEO added that there are an average of only 25 to 27 inpatients each day in the 96-bed facility, which has been renamed Commonwealth Medical Center.
