Health Care Providers

Monica Dillon wasn't happy with her eye care provider, so when she saw an online deal for an exam and glasses for $50, she clicked on it. The accountant, who lives in Columbia and works in Washington, doesn't ordinarily get medical care without a recommendation. But the offer was too good to resist — and, as she notes, there would be no surgery or undressing. "The timing was right so I jumped on it," she said about her purchase via Groupon, a deal-of-the-day e-mail sent to tens of thousands of people in the Baltimore region and millions nationwide.

Some of Dr. Maria Brown's young patients won't be getting a prescription they can fill at a pharmacy. Instead, they'll be instructed to fill their lungs with fresh air, feel the sunlight on their skin and stretch their muscles in the great outdoors. They will be told to walk around the block, visit a nature center or take a bike ride with their parents. Brown is a nature champion, trained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to teach other health care providers at St. Agnes Hospital about the benefits of getting children outside to combat obesity and accompanying diseases such as diabetes and asthma.

The anguished mother pounded the floor at Johns Hopkins Hospital, screaming, "Why, why, why?" Dr. John Wogan had just told her as gently as he knew how that her teenage son was dead, the victim of a stray bullet fired on the streets of Baltimore. The next day the mother was dead herself, felled by a burst blood vessel in her brain that Wogan believes resulted from the terrible, sudden stress of learning her child was gone. Twenty years later the episode remains etched in the doctor's memory.

The Baltimore Technology Park is building a $5 million expansion that will provide 7,000 square feet of space and support up to six megawatts of power for law firms, educational institutions, health care providers and others seeking data center services. The 30,000-square-foot technology park opened five years ago in the shell of a one-story former whiskey warehouse at 1401 Russell St., just south of M&T Bank Stadium, and now has several dozen customers. Its expansion is scheduled for completion in April.

Days before the first snowflake fell, the region's home health clinicians pondered not only how they would care for elderly homebound patients during last weekend's historic storm, but if they could reach their doorsteps at all. They began extensive emergency planning, including deploying extra staff and triaging patients. And with another snowfall expected later today, agencies are rushing to get patients back to their regular home visit schedules and stocking them with necessary supplies.

The DentaQuest Foundation said Monday that it will fund efforts to improve the oral health of the region's children, particularly those in lower-income areas. The foundation awarded a $331,343 grant to the University of Maryland to promote statewide oral health literacy and put up another $202,886 to support development of a Maryland Dental Action Coalition. More than a third of the state's kindergartners and third graders in 2006 had untreated tooth decay, according to the foundation.

Everyone makes mistakes. Despite their best efforts, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers make their share. So do government bureaucrats. But there's a big difference between an error and a deliberate act of fraud. Those who knowingly and deceptively create a false medical claim in order to bilk the government out of large sums of money deserve no sympathy whatsoever. That's why one of the bigger errors made by members of the Maryland General Assembly last year was to reject a bill that would have helped the state crack down on Medicaid fraud.

Almost any doctor will readily offer up horror stories of trying to find and pay for medical malpractice insurance. Such policies are cost-prohibitive and increasingly scarce, and require many to practice "defensive medicine" - ordering extra precautionary tests and procedures that contribute mightily to the rise in health costs. A growing number of policymakers are calling for a cap on medical malpractice awards as a partial solution to the national health care debate. Rooting out frivolous lawsuits is a laudable goal, but limiting damage awards for patients who have been wronged is akin to fixing a broken leg with a band-aid.

Now here are some people who could use a nice cold beer with the president. But somehow, I think all you'd end up with are people who are still mad but now have a bit of a beer buzz going. People who already are acting crazy don't need help losing any more of their inhibition. I've been watching footage of the town hall follies play out across the country as congressional representatives on summer recess head home to their constituents, some of whom apparently do not like President Barack Obama's push for health care reform.