department of health
Validity problems may delay SC infection reports
Hospitals in South Carolina may not release their reports of infection rates to the public in February 2008, as promised. Though the hospitals are complying with 2006 state law that requires all... Read more...
Untreated patient dies of heart attack in CA hospital
It's now official that a 33-year-old man who died in a Los Angeles medical center died because his heart attack wasn't diagnosed, despite his spending three hours in its emergency department. A... Read more...
RI hospital faces third fine for wrong-side brain surgery
What should be a never event seems to be a "sometimes" event at one Rhode Island facility. Rhode Island Hospital has just been fined $50,000 and reprimanded by the state Department of Health after a... Read more...
WA governor wants MRSA reporting
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) is asking the state's medical laboratories to begin reporting when they detect cases of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Gov. Gregoire has... Read more...
NY health plans launching physician P4P project
Piggybacking on a state grant, an Albany, NY-based trade group has set plans to develop a $12 million pay-for-performance program. The group, the New York Health Plan Association, has accepted a $3.2... Read more...
Wal-Mart hires top federal public health official
Retail juggernaut Wal-Mart has hired Dr. John Agwunobi, assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services and an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, to run... Read more...
NY facilities want state to pay for restructuring
As FierceHealthcare readers know, last year the state of New York embarked on what may be the most aggressive Read more...
NY legislators seek changes in hospital closure plan
Last year, New York's hospital and nursing home industries were rocked by legislation which would force many to close, merge or restructure their operations. The recommendations were made by a state body, the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, whose word had the force of law under the enabling legislation. When the group made their recommendations last year, it was supposed to be the final ruling on the subject. But now, under fire from hospital leaders, state …
... Read more...NY overpays providers by $26M
A new audit by the New York Department of Health has found that the state's Medicaid program overpaid providers by almost $26 million over a five year period. The problems occurred, auditors found, because controls within the Department's electronic claims processing system were not being used, and what's more, that the clinics weren't following the state's Medicaid billing guidelines. The payments, which took place from 2001 through 2006, went to clinic services for hospitalized Medicaid …
... Read more...OH infections top 1,000 per month
A new report by the Ohio Department of Health has given public health officials a new target to consider. The report, which focused on the state's 210 hospitals and 966 nursing homes, concluded that there were about 14,300 cases of Clostridium difficile infections last year in the state's healthcare facilities. Tracking this bug has become particularly important as the mortality rate from such infections has climbed. C. diff.-related deaths in Ohio have shot up 325 percent between the …
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