Medical Care

CHICAGO -- Tired of paying for botched medical procedures and low-quality medical care, some of the nation's largest businesses called on U.S. hospitals yesterday to agree to apologize and waive costs related to so-called "never events" - medical errors these employers say should never happen. Both the Leapfrog Group, a national coalition of large health care purchasers such as Boeing Co., General Motors Corp., General Electric Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Marriott International Inc., and the Midwest Business Group on Health, a Chicago business coalition representing more than 80 local employers, said hospitals should commit to new policy on 28 health care never events as a way to make providers of medical care more accountable.

The murder trial of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion provider, entered its fifth week today riding a peculiar media firestorm. The focus of much attention in recent days was not on Dr. Gosnell, who is charged in the death of seven babies and an adult patient who died of an overdose, but on a claim that the trial is getting modest coverage in the national media - allegedly because of a liberal bias. Whether sufficient coverage has been given to the trial we would leave for others to judge.

After hours of labor, Enso Martinez cried as his wife, Rebecca Fielding, was carried from their Waverly home on a stretcher en route to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Fielding, who had wanted to deliver her baby at home with the help of a midwife, assured her husband that everything would be OK. But she never expected to wait more than two hours for an emergency Caesarean section after being rushed to the hospital by ambulance that morning in March 2010. If a team of doctors and nurses had performed the surgery earlier, Martinez and Fielding contend, their son, Enzo, would now be a normal 2-year-old boy practicing new words and toddling across the floor.

John Lurz of Bel Air has been promoted continuing care administrator Oak Crest retirement community. Previously, Lurz served as the assisted living manager at the Erickson Living community in northeast Baltimore County. Lurz brings 15 years of health care administration to his new leadership position. With Oak Crest since 2010, he has been a licensed nursing home administrator for more than six years. The extended care neighborhood at Oak Crest provides assisted living, respite care, post-acute rehabilitation and nursing care and outpatient rehabilitation services.

Not so long ago mixing a shopping trip with a visit to the doctor might not have crossed most people's minds. But the concept has caught on quickly. Clinics located in drug stores, supermarket and retail stores are attracting a rapidly growing number of patients, according to a new study released Wednesday by research group the RAND Corporation. Researchers found that visits to retail medical clinics increased four-fold from 2007 to 2009. Visits reached 5.97 million in 2009, compared to 1.48 million in 2007.

You can see why a state might require minors to have a parent's OK before they receive medical care. But Maryland law has made life especially difficult for homeless teenagers who have no adults watching out for them. It's the sort of problem that drives Lisa Stambolis crazy. As director of pediatric and adolescent health at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore, she organized people — including homeless teens — to press for change. It worked. A new law offering more leeway for minors' medical treatment goes into effect Oct. 1. In July, Stambolis was honored for her efforts and named a White House "Champion of Change," one of 13 selected for their efforts on behalf of homeless youth.

THE national debate on health care reform has highlighted a fundamental flaw in our medical system -- the lack of doctors, even for those who have insurance, in rural and inner-city areas.There is only one practical way to deliver medical care to the tens of millions of Americans who lack it: mandatory public service by physicians.At the end of 1992, an estimated 3,700 non-specialist physicians were needed in medically underserved areas. Although many physicians provide care to the needy at a reduced fee or no charge, volunteer efforts, splendid as they are, will never reach all Americans isolated by poverty, geography or residence in inadequate nursing homes, prisons or mental institutions.

The Coalition of Geriatric Services and the Howard County Office on Aging will offer a day of free workshops, "Arm Yourself With Knowledge: Your Rights, Your Risks in Medical Care," from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. today at the Ellicott City Senior Center. The conference aims to raise awareness of what an individual can do to prevent medical errors. Attendees can register for door prizes and visit exhibits from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Del. Elizabeth Bobo will discuss "A Statewide Perspective" at 2 p.m., and Kathryn Chrystal of St. Agnes Home Health Care and Hospice will discuss "Medical Records: A Personal Perspective" at 2:30 p.m. Other workshops and discussions include "Medical Records Rights" by elder law attorney Patricia Storch at 3 p.m.; "Hospital How-To's With Medical Records" by Nancy Smith, director of nursing at Howard County General Hospital, at 4 p.m.; "Medications: Herbal Interactions" by Lynn Shumake, a pharmacist of natural medicine, at 4:30 p.m.; and "Problematic Medications for Older Americans" by Lillian Alade, a pharmacist at Howard County General Hospital, at 5:10 p.m. Chrystal also will discuss "Medication and Safety of Administra- tion" at 5:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend the whole program or drop in for individual sessions.

NEW YORK -- A wide-ranging, three-year study of young American children to be released today confirms some of society's worst fears: millions of infants and toddlers are so deprived of medical care, loving supervision and intellectual stimulation that their growth into healthy and responsible adults is threatened.The plight of the nation's youngest and most vulnerable children, the report says, is a result of many parents' being overwhelmed by poverty, teen-age pregnancy, divorce or work.

Anne Arundel County inmates are getting medical care too cheaply, and work-release inmates are being undercharged for their expenses, according to a county audit of its detention centers that was released Friday. The report also says the detention centers have been improperly collecting $25 fees from inmates enrolled in a community service program. And it notes several examples of other improper fee collections and inadequate oversight of funds. "I'm not overly alarmed," said Richard J. Baker, the superintendent of detention facilities.

The family of longtime Orioles umpires attendant Ernie Tyler is suing a Baltimore nursing home, claiming that a doctor at the facility cut off life-sustaining care to Tyler without authorization. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Baltimore Circuit Court, alleges that a day after Tyler checked into Genesis ElderCare Long Green Center in February 2011, his attending physician, Kenneth Lindyberg, "terminated necessary medical care, including antibiotics, blood products, medical tests, and medications without Mr. Tyler's permission and without the knowledge or permission of his family.

As a 35-year employee of St. Joseph Medical Center, I have followed with interest your coverage of issues the hospital has faced over the last several years. While overall the reporting has been accurate, the most recent articles have not conveyed a fair or accurate picture of the hospital's efforts to regain its stellar reputation ("St. Joseph center not certified by Medicare," Feb. 13). Under the new management by the University of Maryland, there has been diligent examination of every detail of the hospital's operation by management as well as all staff.

The O'Malley administration kicked off an effort to bring medical services to disadvantaged neighborhoods Thursday by designating the state's first five "health enterprise zones" created under a law passed last year. Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, who led the administration's efforts to launch the $4 million-a-year pilot project, said the five zones will be located in West Baltimore, Annapolis, Capitol Heights (Prince George's County), Greater Lexington Park (St. Mary's County) and Dorchester-Caroline counties.

As the Dec. 3 editorial "The Salvation of St. Joseph" noted, citizens must be vigilant about health care restrictions at Catholic-run hospitals. Catholic hospitals enforce religious directives that can interfere with patient decision-making in unpredictable and sometimes devastating ways. Maryland residents working to establish the state's Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) program, for example, need to learn the local bishop's view of POLST because his view will apply at St. Joseph.

In 2006, when Eugene Semenov was an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University, he volunteered at the medical clinic of Baltimore Rescue Mission, which provides free medical attention to people who are homeless. He couldn't help noticing that the record-keeping system was stuck in a pre-computer era, with volunteers tasked with taking vital signs and gathering information. The result was a lack of standardization, and a system of physical paper, which could not be transferred electronically to other doctors.

Years ago I heard someone say that if you can write the problem on the board, it is half solved. Several times I have found it to be true. Letter writer John Brown did not correctly address the Republican's problem or the nation's ("The GOP lost because it's out of touch," Nov. 28). Too many people are jobless and living at poverty level with inadequate medical care while our nation is rapidly increasing its debt. But that is not the problem. That is the situation. And no one disagrees with it - not Democrats, not liberals, not journalists, not even Republicans.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - One captive expressed surprise when he woke up after surgery to repair a gunshot wound he had suffered in Afghanistan. He told his doctor he thought he was going to be killed. Several other captives have thanked doctors and nurses for easing their pain by treating their wounds and infections. The Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners brought to Guantanamo for confinement and medical care until American officials can figure out what to do with them are supposed to be among the hardest of a hard lot. But the medical staff brought in to treat them say they have generally been cooperative and appreciative.

Baltimore County officials are moving to bolster medical services to women jammed into an overflowing jail, but say inmate complaints about other problems aren't easily fixed in the outmoded building.EMSA Correctional Care, a Florida firm that has the $1.4 million annual contract for medical care at the county's jails, is ready to hire a physician's assistant to improve services for inmates, said county Corrections Administrator James M. Dean.But, he added, only emergency care is available nights and weekends, and conditions in the women's jail are difficult, especially when the 40-year-old building is so crowded.

Why do some people get sicker and die sooner than others? The answer involves more than our genes, behaviors and medical care, according to a new study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the advocacy group Equity Inc. It turns out that where we live is often the strongest predictor of our well-being, and that disparities along racial and class lines in health outcomes and access to care mirror the inequities in every other aspect...

On the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's dramatic announcement about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, the two presidential candidates met for a debate last Monday only 250 miles away in Boca Raton, Fla. Moderator Bob Schieffer began the night by reminding the nearly 60 million viewers that those 13 days in late 1962 were "perhaps the closest we've ever come to nuclear war. And it is a sobering reminder that every president faces...