Outpatient Surgery

Bowing to pressure from more efficient independent surgery centers, the Greater Baltimore Medical Center announced yesterday that it would lower prices on same-day surgery by 30 percent.The dramatic price reduction, effective Friday, is a bid by GBMC to keep its outpatient business from being siphoned off by the centers, and comes as insurance companies around the country begin directing doctors to less-costly venues to care for their patients."We had physicians come in and complain of letters they got [from insurance companies]

On Saturday afternoon, Bel Air was crawling with people donning green shirts and looking for something. While the folks wearing green shirts were looking for items as part of a scavenger hunt, they were helping in a small way to find effective treatments for melanoma. This was the fifth year for the Bel Air Scavenger Hunt, but the first time the event was organized as a fundraiser. The beneficiary of the event is the foundation Kelly's Dream, established two years ago with the goal of promoting the organization of many small events to raise money to fight melanoma.

Carroll County General Hospital is negotiating with county government to buy the county Health Department building, officials said Friday.The building likely would be used for an expanded outpatient surgery center and doctors' offices, said Linda Harder, hospital vice president for planning and marketing.Hospital officials have been interested in buying the Washington Road building, which is connected to the hospital by an underground corridor, for years, she said.The building would be a convenient place for outpatient services, in part because it has 170 parking spaces, she said.

Ravens outside linebacker injured his Achilles tendon during a workout last week and is expected to miss most - if not all - of the 2012 season. Suggs, the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, is scheduled to see a foot specialist in North Carolina next week to determine the extent of the injury. Dr. Lew Schon, the chief of foot and ankle surgery at Union Memorial Hospital, discussed, in general terms, what the surgery and recovery from such an injury entails. How serious is a torn Achilles tendon for an NFL player?

Ravens outside linebacker injured his Achilles tendon during a workout last week and is expected to miss most - if not all - of the 2012 season. Suggs, the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, is scheduled to see a foot specialist in North Carolina next week to determine the extent of the injury. Dr. Lew Schon, the chief of foot and ankle surgery at Union Memorial Hospital, discussed, in general terms, what the surgery and recovery from such an injury entails. How serious is a torn Achilles tendon for an NFL player?

A new state panel examining the impact of outpatient surgery centers that are not part of hospitals wants to halt the growth of such centers while it considers the issue.A six-month moratorium on approvals for new centers, if agreed to by the Maryland Health Resources Planning Commission next month, would be the opening move of the Health Planning and Strategy Committee, a panel formed Jan. 12 by the commission and composed of some of its members.The proposed hiatus, which will go before the full commission Feb. 8, has come under stiff criticism from doctors, insurance companies and others who are trying to establish a presence in a shifting marketplace.

St. Agnes Hospital has purchased a Columbia Medical Plan outpatient surgery center in Ellicott City, its first major expansion outside of Baltimore City in more than 100 years.The Baltimore City hospital said it bought the Patuxent Surgicare Center at 2850 North Ridge Road on Monday to better serve patients in Howard and Baltimore counties."We felt we needed a facility close to them," hospital spokesman George J. Moniodis said. About 2,000 Howard County residents visited the hospital in 1991, hospital officials said.

A week passed from the time Michael Markwitz told his doctor about a pain in his lower back to the day this month he was lifted into a 44-by-16-foot mobile treatment center behind an office park in Southwest Baltimore. As he faded into unconsciousness, high- pressure shock waves blasted away at the stone in his kidney until it began dissolving.A decade ago, Mr. Markwitz, a pastry chef at Innovative Gourmet in Owings Mills, might have undergone surgery to remove the stone and been out of work for up to four weeks.

Dr. Everett Schnepfe Diggs, a retired gynecologist who later was chief of staff at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, died from heart failure Friday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 96. Dr. Diggs, the son of a schoolteacher and the secretary and treasurer of the Stieff Piano Co., was born in Baltimore and reared on Erdman Avenue. After graduating from City College, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1933 from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Diggs was a 1937 graduate of the University of Maryland Medical School and completed a residency in gynecology and female urology in 1941 at the University of Maryland Medical School.

Shortsighted policy in gulf warIs there such a thing as "international" human rights? If so, aren't Americans guilty of violating them?Our government has obstinately refused to lift the sanctions against Iraq. As a result, 80 percent of Iraqi children are undernourished and slowly dying for lack of food, clean water and medical facilities. Several U.N. and American medical teams have visited Iraq and come up with the same appalling conclusion - 170,000 Iraqi children will die by the end of 1991.

Dr. Everett Schnepfe Diggs, a retired gynecologist who later was chief of staff at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, died from heart failure Friday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 96. Dr. Diggs, the son of a schoolteacher and the secretary and treasurer of the Stieff Piano Co., was born in Baltimore and reared on Erdman Avenue. After graduating from City College, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1933 from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Diggs was a 1937 graduate of the University of Maryland Medical School and completed a residency in gynecology and female urology in 1941 at the University of Maryland Medical School.

Mammograms, outpatient care for mastectomy discussedAs a breast cancer patient, I recently chose outpatient surgery at the Johns Hopkins Breast Center, returning home the same day following a modified radical mastectomy. I am grateful that my experience differed greatly from those decribed in Michael Dresser's article (Jan. 31, "Longer hospital stays sought").Prior to the operation, my surgeon carefully explained the circumstances under which I could be an outpatient.If I chose to have reconstructive surgery, that option would not be available to me, as this required a hospital stay of several days.

Rather than go to a big hospital to have a cataract operation, Ian Gordon chooses the small St. Agnes Surgery Center.It's more convenient -- tucked away in a quiet neighborhood in Ellicott City 10 minutes from his home.And the center is less daunting than a hospital. A compact, three-story brick building, its automatic sliding glass doors open into what looks like a large doctor's office with upholstered chairs, magazines, a TV, piped-in music and coffee for patients' families.Arriving about 6:30 a.m. on a freezing February morning, Mr. Gordon, a sandy-haired native of Scotland, is soon stretched out in one of four operating rooms.

Bowing to pressure from more efficient independent surgery centers, the Greater Baltimore Medical Center announced yesterday that it would lower prices on same-day surgery by 30 percent.The dramatic price reduction, effective Friday, is a bid by GBMC to keep its outpatient business from being siphoned off by the centers, and comes as insurance companies around the country begin directing doctors to less-costly venues to care for their patients."We had physicians come in and complain of letters they got [from insurance companies]

A new state panel examining the impact of outpatient surgery centers that are not part of hospitals wants to halt the growth of such centers while it considers the issue.A six-month moratorium on approvals for new centers, if agreed to by the Maryland Health Resources Planning Commission next month, would be the opening move of the Health Planning and Strategy Committee, a panel formed Jan. 12 by the commission and composed of some of its members.The proposed hiatus, which will go before the full commission Feb. 8, has come under stiff criticism from doctors, insurance companies and others who are trying to establish a presence in a shifting marketplace.

A week passed from the time Michael Markwitz told his doctor about a pain in his lower back to the day this month he was lifted into a 44-by-16-foot mobile treatment center behind an office park in Southwest Baltimore. As he faded into unconsciousness, high- pressure shock waves blasted away at the stone in his kidney until it began dissolving.A decade ago, Mr. Markwitz, a pastry chef at Innovative Gourmet in Owings Mills, might have undergone surgery to remove the stone and been out of work for up to four weeks.

On Saturday afternoon, Bel Air was crawling with people donning green shirts and looking for something. While the folks wearing green shirts were looking for items as part of a scavenger hunt, they were helping in a small way to find effective treatments for melanoma. This was the fifth year for the Bel Air Scavenger Hunt, but the first time the event was organized as a fundraiser. The beneficiary of the event is the foundation Kelly's Dream, established two years ago with the goal of promoting the organization of many small events to raise money to fight melanoma.

Mammograms, outpatient care for mastectomy discussedAs a breast cancer patient, I recently chose outpatient surgery at the Johns Hopkins Breast Center, returning home the same day following a modified radical mastectomy. I am grateful that my experience differed greatly from those decribed in Michael Dresser's article (Jan. 31, "Longer hospital stays sought").Prior to the operation, my surgeon carefully explained the circumstances under which I could be an outpatient.If I chose to have reconstructive surgery, that option would not be available to me, as this required a hospital stay of several days.

Carroll County General Hospital is negotiating with county government to buy the county Health Department building, officials said Friday.The building likely would be used for an expanded outpatient surgery center and doctors' offices, said Linda Harder, hospital vice president for planning and marketing.Hospital officials have been interested in buying the Washington Road building, which is connected to the hospital by an underground corridor, for years, she said.The building would be a convenient place for outpatient services, in part because it has 170 parking spaces, she said.

St. Agnes Hospital has purchased a Columbia Medical Plan outpatient surgery center in Ellicott City, its first major expansion outside of Baltimore City in more than 100 years.The Baltimore City hospital said it bought the Patuxent Surgicare Center at 2850 North Ridge Road on Monday to better serve patients in Howard and Baltimore counties."We felt we needed a facility close to them," hospital spokesman George J. Moniodis said. About 2,000 Howard County residents visited the hospital in 1991, hospital officials said.