Hospital Stay

The average cost of a Maryland hospital stay rose $500 during the just-ended fiscal year to $9,440 - a 5.4 percent increase that was lower than the national average, according to a report released yesterday by the state's Health Services Cost Review Commission. Throughout the United States, the price tag for such inpatient medical care rose 6.4 percent. Keeping Maryland's increase below the nationwide average has been a goal of the commission, which was established by the Maryland legislature in 1971 amid public concern over rising hospital costs.

Moira Mattingly had only been pregnant for about 24 weeks - still plenty of time, she thought, to pick a name for her daughter. So when she went to the hospital with some discomfort - small pains coming every seven minutes - the news that she was going into labor was alarming. The baby's lungs weren't fully formed, her skin barely so. Mattingly was also confronting sobering statistics: Babies born before 26 weeks, called micropreemies, can easily die and have a high chance of lifelong medical problems like cerebral palsy and blindness.

Negotiators for the Senate and House of Delegates reached agreement yesterday on legislation sought by the governor to give significant new rights to members of HMOs and other managed-care insurance plans.The "patients' bill of rights" is designed to give consumers new flexibility in their health care, with easier access to specialists and a broader choice of medications.The key to the House-Senate agreement is a compromise giving insurers the choice of paying for a 48-hour hospital stay after mastectomies and testicle removal operations or providing patients with at least one home visit by a care provider within 24 hours.

After four nights at Saint Agnes Hospital, Orioles reliever Jim Johnson was finally released Friday morning after a severe case of food poisoning. Johnson, who has converted 15 straight save opportunities dating to last season, acknowledged the experience was frustrating and frightening. "A little of both, depending on the time," Johnson said. "It was pretty bad. " Doctors conducted various tests to rule out specific illnesses, and eventually, food poisoning - including when and where - was pinpointed.

One year after the General Assembly passed groundbreaking legislation that seemed to give new mothers and their babies a minimum 48-hour hospital stay, irate mothers are asking lawmakers to protect them from being sent home much earlier.Instead of allowing them two days in the hospital, insurers are sending most women and babies home the next day. And women who deliver by Caesarean section are going home in just 48 hours, even though insurers routinely allowed three-day stays for C-section deliveries before the legislation was passed.

The hazards of the job caught up with the Sykesville building inspector Friday.Bill Oler, hired on a two-year contract in January, fell down a hill at the Shannon Run tot lot on Norris Avenue. He broke his leg in two places."It was a very bad and painful break," said Town Manager James L. Schumacher. "We had to get the ambulance."Mr. Oler, who has earned about 500 hours in safety training, added safety inspection to his duties about six weeks ago.After a brief hospital stay, Mr. Oler was recuperating at his Hampstead residence, Mr. Schumacher said.

The cost of treating the uninsured at Maryland hospitals last year jumped by the largest amount in 12 years, prompting economists who run the state's hospital regulatory system to call for more affordable health insurance.But profits statewide jumped 85 percent last year after the system approved higher rates to pay for the expected increase in the number of people unable to pay for medical care.The bill for the uninsured -- $394 million -- grew 28 percent, according to figures released yesterday by the Health Services Cost Review Commission, which sets hospital rates in Maryland.

A doctor visit or hospital stay is not something most people look forward to. But the experience needn't be unpleasant -- or hazardous to your health. That's the general theme of three recent books that aim to help consumers receive the best medical care possible at a time when healthcare costs are soaring: * How to Survive Your Hospital Stay: The Complete Guide to Getting the Care You Need -- and Avoiding Problems You Don't, by Gail Van Kanegan and Michael Boyette (Simon & Schuster, 248 pages, $14)

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.

Faced with action by regulators that would cut hospital rates, the Maryland Hospital Association is proposing instead a one-year freeze on rates, Calvin M. Pierson, the association's president, said yesterday.Pierson said a proposal by the state Health Services Cost Review Commission to reduce the cost of an average hospital stay in Maryland by 6 percent over 2 1/2 years, was "totally unacceptable, in our view."Such deep cuts, he said, could mean "thousands of hospital employees laid off" (Maryland hospitals employ about 75,000, according to the association)

The cost of a hospital stay in Maryland is on the rise, but not as much as that nationally, according to a report released Wednesday by the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. The average cost to stay in a Maryland hospital was $10,983 in fiscal year 2010, compared to $10,767 the previous year, according to the report. The 2 percent increase was lower than that nationally, where the cost of a hospital stay increased 3 percent. The markup, or difference between hospitals costs and what hospitals ultimately charge patients, is also the lowest in the nation, the report found.

The University of Maryland will close its downtown campus for three days because of the Baltimore Grand Prix auto race, and medical staffers are drawing up plans to care for patients as nearby streets are transformed into a high-speed raceway over the Labor Day weekend. Patients are being asked to postpone elective surgeries, some clinics will be closed and classes will be canceled for the Grand Prix — whose open-wheeled cars will race at speeds approaching 190 mph. Some medical staffers will stay at nearby hotels so they won't be caught in traffic snarls on their way to the hospital, officials said.

Jay Hancock's column "Md. hospital stays: the one-day wonder" (Feb. 28), regarding "one day" hospital admissions, fails to address the multi-dimensional nature of the issue. One would conclude from the article that patients admitted to the acute care setting for only one day did not need to be admitted at all and that one-day admissions reflect unnecessary and/or over-utilization of medical resources. While Maryland's unique payment system has indeed given hospitals an incentive to admit patients (as hospitals are reimbursed by this methodology)

C all it the riddle of the revolving-door recuperation. Why are so many Maryland patients spending only one day in the hospital? Maryland hospitals on average discharge more people after one day, as a portion of their total business, than those in almost any other state. The reason might not be what you think. It has to do with delivering too much health care, not too little. Solving the puzzle shows yet again the difficulty of containing medical costs and how Maryland employers, insurers and patients pay millions for what are probably unnecessary services.

Baltimore has a shortage of primary care doctors. More physicians are converting their practices to fee-for-service boutiques. Others have moved out of the city to new professional buildings beyond the Beltway. Nurses are in demand. Community health centers across the city have more patients than they can reasonably serve. More people are out of work, and that means more uninsured people. And when someone without health care insurance is admitted to a Baltimore hospital, the public helps defray some of the cost of that patient's treatment.

WASHINGTON - With a $20 million, 24-nation aid effort under way for victims of the fighting in Georgia, the USNS Comfort, Baltimore's familiar white-hulled hospital ship, remains idle at its Canton pier, though on standby for possible deployment to the region. The Pentagon sent a military team into war-ravaged Georgia yesterday to determine what supplies are needed and the most effective ways to deliver them. Two Air Force C-17 cargo planes have already carried basic loads of shelter, food and clothing.

Jennifer Daniels expected to be at Carroll Hospital Center for only a few hours after being admitted in July for emergency outpatient gallbladder surgery. But her hospital stay stretched to four days and, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, turned life-threatening after a nurse allegedly administered intravenous insulin instead of the antibiotics that Daniels' doctor had prescribed in the hours before her operation. The lawsuit filed by the 31-year-old Owings Mills woman seeks not only financial compensation for her experience but also an end to the $12,000 in medical bills that Daniels' lawyer says the hospital continues to try to collect for the resulting tests, cardiac evaluation and critical-care stay.

State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer was hospitalized this week for tests on his heart, which revealed coronary irregularities that will be treated with medication and rest, his spokeswoman said. Schaefer was expected to be released this morning, said Christine Duray, a spokeswoman in the comptroller's office. While adjusting to the medication, Schaefer will reduce his schedule, Duray said. Schaefer, 83, felt dizzy on Monday, and on Tuesday visited his doctor, who recommended that he undergo coronary tests, Duray said.

In the summer of 2004, I was so excited about moving back to my beloved Baltimore. I had been living in the suburbs of Philadelphia for more than 23 years. I have a professional background in community economic development and was eager to apply my skills here in Baltimore. When I arrived, I was not prepared for the devastation that I encountered. The physical deterioration was compelling, but the biggest disappointment was the apathy of the citizens. The violence in this city is overwhelming, and the citizens seem to be numb.

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.