Hospital

Federal health officials warned this week that the nation's hospitals and nursing homes are increasingly at risk from deadly new strains of drug-resistant bacteria that can't be treated with even the strongest antibiotics. So far, the infections have been confined to a small number of the sickest patients in hospital wards, but authorities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there is only a "limited window of opportunity" to halt the spread of these "nightmare bacteria" into the wider population.

Among the 61 calls the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department received for medical and fire-rescue service during the period February 23-March 2 were the following: Frederick Road at Ingleside Avenue, 9:35 p.m. March 1. A motor vehicle accident with injury was reported. Crews from the Arbutus and English Consul volunteer stations and Catonsville and Woodlawn career stations responded to the report of a motor vehicle accident with possible injuries in Catonsville. Four people with non-life-threatening injuries taken to a local hospital.

A 51-year-old man with a colorful criminal past has been charged in connection with the robbery of two hospital employees at Mercy Medical Center's McAuley Tower, police said. Officers arrested William Johnson of the 500 block of Yale Avenue Friday and he has been charged with armed robbery, first degree assault and other offenses, according to online court records. He is being held without bail. Two employees were robbed of cash from their personal belongings Tuesday, police said earlier in the week.

In-patient units at Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville have become troubled environments where serious assaults on hospital staff are common, according to a scathing new report from a consultant for the Maryland health department. The chaos at the state's largest psychiatric hospital, the consultant found, is fueled by a few patients who "prey upon patients and staff with relative impunity" after being ordered by courts to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation — sometimes with dubious symptoms.

Four pretrial inmates at the Baltimore City Detention Center were stabbed by a fellow detainee and taken to hospitals Friday, a spokesman with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said. A fifth man was suffered minor injuries and was treated inside the facility, spokesman Mark A. Vernarelli in a statement. The four others were taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital for non life-threatening injuries. The stabbing occurred in housing for men awaiting trial for crimes allegedly committed in Baltimore City, the statement said.

Study after study demonstrates that poverty is a powerful driver of poor health. Many of America's leading hospitals exist in poor communities. Could these powerful institutions (in economic as well as medical terms) help overcome the deeper sources of failing health among the 46 million Americans living in poverty? A little-known provision of Obamacare provides an unexpected opening. Section 9007 of the Affordable Care Act requires every nonprofit hospital to complete a Community Health Needs Assessment every three years to engage the local community on its general health problems and explain how the hospital intends to address them.

The chief financial officer at Anne Arundel Medical Center is watching the fight over federal spending closely. If the federal government goes through with sequestration cuts beginning today, Maryland stands to lose millions of dollars in health-related funding that could leave hospitals such as Anne Arundel Medical Center looking for ways to make up lost revenue without weakening medical care. "We're here for the community and, like all hospitals, we are here 24/7 and will not jeopardize the care of patients," said Bob Reilly, the Annapolis hospital's finance director.

City police said they were investigating an unusual armed robbery that took place Tuesday afternoon on the third-floor of a downtown hospital. The robbery was reported around 1:10 p.m. at Mercy Medical Center's McAuley Tower, in the 300 block of St. Paul Pl. Det. Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman, said two hospital employees were robbed of cash from their personal belongings. The incident prompted police to set up a perimeter around the hospital. Silbert said police were reviewing surveillance camera footage and were exploring whether the robbery was tied to another that took place recently in the same area.

A maritime icon slipped out of Baltimore for the final time Tuesday morning, without speeches or hoopla, brass bands or balloons. Only a small band of well-wishers waved and took pictures as the Navy's 894-foot hospital ship Comfort left Pier 11 in Canton, its home for more than two decades, on its way to a new permanent berth in Norfolk, Va. The national anthem played on tinny speakers and tugboats slowly eased the Comfort into the harbor and...