Hospital And Clinic News

10:49 AM EST
1/5/2012 Mindanao hospitals alert for leptospirosis in storm aftermathHospitals in Northern Mindanao are preparing for more cases of leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread by rodents, following Tropical Storm Washi.

Source:IRIN Topics:Disaster And Accident, Meteorological Disaster, Health, Disease, Communicable Diseases, Hospital And Clinic

6:37 AM EST
1/5/2012 Lawsuit Accuses Company Of Fraudulently Cycling Patients Through Nursing Homes, Hospice CareFederal attorneys also sued the hospice company, AseraCare, alleging it milked Medicare’s hospice benefit by pressuring its employees to enroll people into hospice who weren’t dying and resisted discharging them despite evidence they weren’t deteriorating. One hospice patient who should have been immobile from end-stage heart disease was healthy enough to go to his granddaughter’s graduation and a berry-picking excursion with a friend, the government charges.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Hospital And Clinic, Crime, Law And Justice, Corporate Crime, Fraud

6:11 PM EST
12/26/2011 For Hospitals, There's No App For ThatiPads have been available since April 2010, but less than one percent of hospitals have fully functional tablet systems, according to Jonathan Mack, director of clinical research and development at the West Wireless Health Institute, a San Diego-based nonprofit focused on lowering the cost of health care through new technology. 

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Hospital And Clinic, Science And Technology, Technology

7:58 AM EST
12/24/2011 Top maternity hospitals In Mass. stop early elective deliveriesThe number of early deliveries, from induced labor or C-sections, has been on the rise across the country for more than a decade now, including in Massachusetts. One reason is that we've come to expect that babies born "a little bit early" will be fine.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Hospital And Clinic, Medical Service

9:23 AM EST
12/20/2011 Some hospitals turn to post-discharge clinics to help hold down readmissionsAccording to a study released this month by the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Washington-based research group, a third of adult patients discharged from a hospital don't see a physician within 30 days -- and experts say this is a key reason so many of them are readmitted.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Hospital And Clinic, Health Treatment

9:19 AM EST
12/20/2011 Analysis: 'Most Poor' hospitals have highest readmission ratesAcademic studies have found that hospitals treating a higher proportion of low-income patients are more likely than others to have higher readmission rates. The accompanying Kaiser Health News analysis is the first to examine the issue on an individual-hospital level for 3,119 facilities.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Hospital And Clinic, Government Health Care, Medicare

9:30 PM EST
12/15/2011 FAQ: The 'Doc Fix' dilemmaAmong the must-do issues on Congress’ end of year list is the "doc fix" – billions of dollars needed to avert drastic rate cuts for physicians who treat Medicare’s 48 million beneficiaries. For doctors, the nail-biter has become a familiar but frustrating rite.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Government Health Care, Healthcare Policy, Hospital And Clinic

11:23 AM EST
12/15/2011 Hospitals try to control readmissions, even when it hurts profitsRepeat customers in hospitals are seen as a big problem – not to the hospitals themselves, which can profit from some patients’ frequent visits, but to the entities that pay for the care: Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Hospital And Clinic, Patient, Government Health Care

7:38 AM EST
12/14/2011 Hospitals Adopt Drug Industry Sales StrategyIn northwest Indiana, Carrie Sota visits five or six doctors' offices every work day as part of her new sales job. But Sota isn't selling the physicians on a prescription drug or a medical device. She's promoting her hospital — the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Hospital And Clinic, Medical Service

9:03 AM EST
12/8/2011 Health law may accelerate growth in urgent care centersConcerned he may have broken a bone, a project manager who lives in Washington, D.C., didn't go to the nearest emergency room or wait until Monday to call his physician for an appointment. Like an increasing number of Americans looking for fast and affordable health care, he went to an urgent care facility.

Source:KaiserHealth Topics:Health, Health Treatment, Healthcare Policy, Hospital And Clinic