Doctors and hospitals across the country push the frontiers of medical science every day, finding new ways to improve health care and to change and save lives. But at the same time, some of medicine’s basics—like delivering babies safely and protecting mothers’ well being—also keep getting botched, especially for poor and black women. It’s a….
Continue ReadingNursing Care
A timely reminder that courageous (and lonely) caregivers need our care, too
Pick up that phone. Dash off a text or an email. Issue a dinner invitation or make a date for a casual lunch. Or just drop by to see that friend or loved one who struggles with the burdens of caring for someone in poor physical or mental health. Why now? Why not? Paula Spann….
Continue ReadingA new infectious threat at hospitals & nursing homes: deadly Legionnaire’s
Hospitals and nursing homes, by failing to properly maintain their water systems, may be putting older patients at high risk of an unusual form of pneumonia, with federal officials tracking 1 in 5 suspected or confirmed cases of life-threatening Legionnaire’s Disease to health care facilities. Anne Suchat, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control….
Continue ReadingThere may be no place like home after joint replacements
Hip and knee replacements, especially among seniors, have become so prevalent that almost 7 million Americans by 2010 had undergone the surgeries. With the cost to Medicare of knee replacements running between $16,500 and $33,000, and with roughly half of the procedures’ expense occurring post-operatively, there’s some good news for patients on saving money—and staying….
Continue ReadingCan hospitals cure life-saving intensive care units of their risky high-tech chaos?
The spots in hospitals where patients in the direst shape receive specialized treatment are themselves in need of urgent care, experts say, explaining that antiquated intensive care units (ICUs) contribute to needless harm. But how exactly to yank them and the therapies they provide into the 21st century? Usha Lee McFarling, a Pulitzer Prize winner,….
Continue ReadingHospitals now must tell seniors when they’re ‘under observation,’ not admitted
Uncle Sam is stepping up to try to help ailing elderly patients who may get stuck with big hospital bills and gaps in their medical coverage due to a linguistic loophole. A Medicare law, newly in force, requires hospitals to tell Medicare patients that they are “under observation,” and not formally admitted. The difference to….
Continue ReadingA little Rx for all the awful headlines: four stories of remarkable resilience
The events of recent days ─in Texas, Louisiana, and Minnesota─ have been so tragic that it’s easy to despair. Here are four health-related people stories worth reading to remind us of humanity’s enduring better side: In the horrors of Syrian combat, medical Samaritans strive to maintain some kind of care First, let’s stipulate that there’s….
Continue ReadingHealth officials failing to protect patients from opioid-addicted caregivers
As the epidemic of prescription drug abuse spreads nationwide, public health authorities are failing to protect patients from the criminal wrong-doing of opioid-addicted caregivers, the Denver Post has reported. The paper launched an investigation because of several prominent cases in the region, including a Colorado surgical technologist who infected hospital patients with hepatitis in 2008….
Continue ReadingWhen money is no object, quality of care can suffer
Because money makes such a difference in health care in the United States, what happens when it’s no object? The results aren’t pretty, a prestigious Boston hospital has found. It rolled out the red carpet and penthouse suites for a Saudi prince who stayed for seven months of therapy for a drug-resistant infection. His lavish….
Continue ReadingSuperbugs flourish as hands stay unwashed
Experts say antibiotic-resistant microbes may be spreading from hospitals to other health care facilities because of transferring patients’ dirty hands. And new research in Southern California raises the concern that existing treatment municipal treatment plants may lack the sanitizing punch needed to kill superbugs (such as the CRE microbes shown) flushed from hospital and other health care….
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