brigham and women

Five of Boston's teaching hospitals have decided to do something hospitals rarely do--disclose the results of inspections done by the Joint Commission over the past eight months. While reasons for disclosing the data vary, Massachusetts General president Dr. Peter Slavin has said that he posted the "disappointing" results to serve as a wake-up call. While all of the hospitals passed their inspections, the inspections found that they are struggling, as are most hospitals, with some basic …

Like their peers in other cities, Boston, MA-area hospitals are planning a wave of new construction. This time around, the hospitals are going "green," creating environments that conserve energy, avoid the use of irritating materials and soothe anxious patients. For example, Brigham and Women's Hospital is building a $352 million, 136-bed cardiac care center featuring such environment- and patient-friendly features as large windows which admit more natural light and a white roof to …

Massachusetts hospitals have collectively seen a substantial increase in profit over the past two years, with profits almost doubling between 2004 and 2006, according to an analysis of public financial data by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Not surprisingly, given longstanding tensions on the issue, MNA is arguing that hospitals should use these funds to boost staff-to-patient ratios. Hospitals say that they've boosted staffing by 15 percent over the past three years, but the union …

Here's a straightforward approach to attracting and keeping primary care doctors in your community. Bank of America has agreed to donate $5 million to boost the supply of Massachusetts-based primary care doctors, largely by paying off loans for medical students, residents and a handful of doctors already practicing in health centers. The idea is that if they serve in one of 23 community health centers or Boston Health Care for the Homeless, they'll be eligible to have $25,000 of their …

Any practicing physician is familiar--perhaps too much so!--with the attractive, likeable marketers pharmaceutical companies send to their offices to pitch new products. Critics argue that far too much of the prescribing process is influenced by these so-called detailers, whose visits may push doctors to opt for expensive new drugs over older, cheaper meds which work just as well. Frustrated by the situation, these critics have begun to send out their own marketers, known by some as …

According to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 700,000 Americans go to the ER each year as a result of adverse drug reactions or interactions. Patients over 65 were much more likely to experience these problems because of the greater number of prescription drugs they take. Certain types of drugs are also much more likely to send people to the ER: “three medications--the blood thinner warfarin, the diabetes drug insulin and the heart medicine digoxin--accounted for one-third of drug-related emergency room visits among people over 65,” reports the Los Angeles Times. Experts say the study illuminates the need for the medical community to better monitor which drugs patients are taking and how they might interact. In addition, Dr. David Bates of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston says prescribing slightly lower levels of drugs to the elderly could cut down on hospital visits since many elderly patients’ bodies can’t handle high drug doses.

Preparing to meet an expected growth in demand, Massachusetts providers are setting plans to build a large number of cancer centers, following population growth out of the Boston metro and into the further-flung suburbs. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital are opening cancer centers in partnership with hospitals in the outer suburbs of Boston. Also, on the heels of a state report predicting a cancer treatment shortage by the year 2010, seven hospitals and two …

MDs hate practice guidelines with good reason--after all, no professional wants to substitute a by-the-numbers approach for following their well-honed instincts. Still, studies like the following suggest that sticking to a formula does have its benefits. Research just published by the Annals of Internal Medicine has found that where patients were harmed by incorrect or late diagnoses, the problem usually occurred because the MD made a mistake at one of a few key steps in the …

In a page one story, The Wall Street Journal reports that some leading cardiac centers are cutting back "drastically" on their use of drug-coated stents. Cardiologists at Cedars-Sinai, Brigham and Women's and other top centers are shifting back to the bare metal variety based on concerns about the long-term risks of blood clots associated with drug-eluting models. Although statistics show the use of the newer models has not changed much overall, observers suspect the news could …

Wireless technology could revolutionize the hospital waiting room, MIT Technology Review reports. Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a team at MIT are experimenting with a system dubbed SMART (Scalable Medical Alert and Response Technology). The approach equips emergency department arrivals with a fanny pack linked to sensors as well as a wireless transponder. That will allow doctors to monitor the condition of patients as they wait and intervene if problems develop. The …