MetroWest Medical Center is asking the Massachusetts Land Court to overturn the Framingham Planning Board's approval of a site plan for a 24,000-square-foot outpatient surgical center proposed by Newton-Wellesley Hospital. In its appeal, MetroWest states that the competition posed by the expansion by Newton-Wellesley Hospital into Framingham would threaten MetroWest's two hospital campuses.
Paoli (PA) Hospital announced that it hopes to open a trauma center. Pennsylvania's Chester County has been without such a facility since 2002, when Brandywine Hospital closed its trauma center. The hospital, part of Main Line Health, said it would submit a letter of intent to open a Level II trauma center to the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation, which oversees trauma care in the state. The Main Line Health board of governors already approved the plan.
Four months after the Fulton County (GA) Commission held back $26.5 million in funding for Grady Memorial Hospital, Grady officials are still trying to satisfy commissioners' demands for the money. Grady and Fulton officials have been in ongoing discussions regarding the county's demands for information on the care of its indigent poor, some officials said. Grady spokesman Matt Gove said that the hospital has consistently worked to provide the Fulton commissioners with the requested information.
Nevada officials have praised new laws spurred by a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas that led to the largest patient notification in U.S. history, saying it will lessen the chance for a similar problem in the future. Five measures dealing with the issue were passed this session by Nevada lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Jim Gibbons.
The bills surfaced after more than 50,000 patients at two now-closed outpatient clinics were notified last year that they may have been exposed to blood-borne diseases by shoddy injection practices.
Frustrated by the exclusion of government-financed medical care from the debate to revamp the nation's troubled health system, advocates of a "single-payer" plan are increasingly turning to demonstrations and civil disobedience as a way to get their message across. In San Francisco, about 200 single-payer proponents held a rally in front of the Federal Building and headed in small groups to Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office to urge the speaker of the House, who was in China, to back single-payer legislation and give its supporters a seat at the table of the health reform debate. The public appeals were part of a series of demonstrations being held in more than 50 U.S. cities over the next few days to encourage lawmakers to enact a single-payer plan.
The Texas Legislature enters the final day of its session needing to take extraordinary steps to salvage several state agencies and avoid a special session. House members adjourned just after midnight without approving a measure to extend children's health insurance for the working poor. Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, has pleaded for the House to take up a bill in which a seemingly defeated measure was revived that would create a buy-in feature for 80,000 low-income children to enroll in the Children's Health Insurance Program.
An entrepreneur has applied a practice used by the restaurant industry as a remedy to long waits at hospitals. Two years ago, Tyler Kiley launched InQuickER, an online service that lets users hold their places in line in the emergency room. InQuickER guarantees its customers will be seen by a physician or physician's assistant within 15 minutes of the specified time. If not (and if the correct information is given online), there is no charge to the patient or their insurance company for the visit.
Former board members are questioning why it was never asked to review Partners HealthCare Chairman Jack Connors's stake in a leading medical education firm. Partners' board has also not notified public officials of Connors's ownership of a fledgling home healthcare firm that has directly solicited Partners' hospitals for business. Connors and top Partners officials defended the decision not to publicly disclose Connors's potential conflicts, saying that because Partners did not directly contract with either of Connors's firms there were no conflicts to report. Connors also defended his right to be an entrepreneur in the healthcare business while also chairing Partners' board, and strongly denied ever using his position for personal or financial advantage.
Massachusetts small-business owners are trying to band together to buy employee health insurance in much the same way cities and towns were granted permission a few years ago. They say such an arrangement would give them big-company-style clout to bargain for better prices and pass the savings on to their workers, who face plans they cannot afford. But in order for small businesses to negotiate as a group, a state law must be changed.
Hospitals in the Washington, DC, and Maryland must frequently divert ambulances carrying all but the most critically ill and injured patients because of emergency room overcrowding. The trend forces many less-critical patients to travel farther for care, increasing costs and potentially causing dangerous delays. Healthcare analysts say ambulance diversions in the region illustrate a national problem that has led some states to ban the practice.
