NEWS
By Fred Schulte and James Drew | December 21, 2008
Willie Mae White began worrying how she'd pay the $36,224 bill from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center a few weeks after having emergency brain surgery. She lived off Social Security and food stamps after decades working as a housekeeper. So she was thrilled when Bayview informed her in writing that her bill would be forgiven, at least in part. The hospital had little to lose, since it can recover its costs of free and unpaid care under a unique state program. Instead, the hospital sued her 15 months later to collect the bill.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service | March 29, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Many hospital patients are dissatisfied with some aspects of their care and might not recommend their hospitals to friends and relatives, the federal government said yesterday as it issued ratings for most of the nation's hospitals, based on the first uniform national survey of patients. The survey was meant to provide a constructive way for patients to complain about arrogant doctors, crabby nurses and dirty or noisy hospital rooms. Medical experts said some of the complaints bore directly on the quality of care.
NEWS
By Dennis O'Brien | January 17, 2008
Four patients in an intensive-care unit at University of Maryland Medical Center have been isolated after lab tests showed that they have a relatively uncommon bacterial infection that is resistant to antibiotics. Doctors identified the bacterium as Acinetobacter baumannii, known to attack wounded military personnel and hospital patients with weakened immune systems. The isolated patients at the hospital have a treatment team assigned to them, members of which wear gowns and gloves, and the hospital has minimized risks that the infection might spread to its nine other intensive-care units, said Dr. Harold Standiford, medical director of infection control.
NEWS
By Chelsea Martinez | August 2, 2007
Blood clots can be painful, difficult to diagnose, even life-threatening. But hospital patients -- who are at an especially high risk of developing the condition -- often don't receive treatment to prevent them, researchers have found. A hospital stay, even one as short as a few days, can greatly increase the chance of developing a clot in the legs or lungs. In fact, blood clots in the lungs, known as pulmonary embolisms, are blamed for as much as 10 percent of deaths in hospitalized patients.
NEWS
By Judith Graham | May 6, 2007
CHICAGO -- Illinois is poised to become the first state to require hospitals to implement programs combating a dangerous, drug-resistant bacterium that kills thousands of people in the U.S. each year. Under a bill moving through the Legislature, hospitals would be required to test for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in all intensive-care and "at-risk" patients, such as those transferred from nursing homes. If it is detected, aggressive measures to prevent transmission would kick in. MRSA is a potentially virulent bacterium that has developed strong defenses against common antibiotics such as penicillin.
NEWS
By Dennis O'Brien | February 13, 2007
A second Maryland hospital has reported losing sensitive computerized data on tens of thousands of patients, raising another alarm about how consumer information is protected. Up to 130,000 former and current patients at St. Mary's Hospital in Leonardtown have recently been notified that a laptop with personal information was stolen from the hospital in December. Just last week, Johns Hopkins officials reported the loss of thousands of employee and patient records. Last seen Dec. 5 in St. Mary's emergency care center, the computer included the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of patients who had been treated as long ago as 1989, said Christine Wray, the hospital's president and chief executive officer.
NEWS
By Dennis O'Brien | February 13, 2007
A second Maryland hospital has reported losing sensitive computerized data on tens of thousands of patients, raising another alarm about how consumer information is protected. Up to 130,000 former and current patients at St. Mary's Hospital in Leonardtown have recently been notified that a laptop with personal information was stolen from the hospital in December. Just last week, Johns Hopkins officials reported the loss of thousands of employee and patient records. Last seen Dec. 5 in St. Mary's emergency care center, the computer included the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of patients who had been treated as long ago as 1989, said Christine Wray, the hospital's president and chief executive officer.
NEWS
By Tricia Bishop | February 8, 2007
Johns Hopkins began notifying thousands of university employees and hospital patients yesterday that backup computer tapes containing personal information about them - some of it sensitive - have been missing for seven weeks. Hopkins officials said they believe the data, which did not include patient medical information, wasn't compromised. Still, two regulatory agencies that oversee hospitals are discussing whether to investigate Hopkins' security practices amid concerns of identity theft.
NEWS
By David Kohn | July 26, 2005
If you enter the hospital with pneumonia today, there's a good chance you'll be treated by a new kind of specialist - a hospitalist - instead of your family doctor. More than half of all large U.S. medical centers now use hospitalists, and new programs are springing up across the country. Fifteen years ago, the situation was far different: primary care doctors were in charge of treating many hospital patients. "It's a sea change in the nature of health care," says Dr. Bob Wachter, a hospitalist and researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.
NEWS
By Erika Niedowski | June 7, 2004
Many children needlessly die and huge amounts of money are wasted because of safety lapses in hospitals, according to the most comprehensive study done on the impact of the problem. More than 4,000 children died in 2000 because of lapses, which cost more than $1 billion in extra hospital charges from longer stays and follow-up care for the ill and injured. The study, published in the new issue of Pediatrics, found that the youngest and poorest patients were the most vulnerable. Researchers considered 20 of the most common patient safety problems, from post-operative infections or bleeding to failure to revive a patient.