doctors and nurses

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 …

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts has awarded Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) $100,000 for its work in reducing errors on its obstetrics unit. Thanks to process and administrative changes, the department saw a substantial 35 percent drop in adverse events among patients between 1999 and 2005, and even more notably, a 50 percent decline among high-risk patients during the same period. BIDMC began changing the department's process of care after a newborn …

Still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans health system still has such bad gaps in it that patients are dying needlessly, New Orleans medical executives told Congress this week. Among other problems, heart disease and cancer patients are getting inadequate care, psych patients aren't getting their meds, and deaths have increased by as much as 40 percent …

> A new report says that North Carolina is so behind in providing mental health services that it will need more than $500 million for the next five years to meet its obligations. Article

> The Cleveland Clinic is sinking $163 million into its Hillcrest Hospital campus expansion over the next five years, the most it's ever spent on one of its nine community hospitals. …

Aetna has created a Web-based course designed to help clinicians work better with culturally-diverse patient populations. The training is available not only for Aetna physicians, nurses and internal clinical employees in the Aetna network, but also out-of-network physicians who've filed claims with the health insurer. The classes offer case-based education on cross-cultural healthcare situations. Doctors and nurses who complete the classes are eligible for CME and CEU credits. Aetna has …

> The CEO of a Boston-area hospital delivers a gentle rebuke to one of his competitors, arguing that said competitor could stand to be more cooperative. Meanwhile, a daily newspaper columnist spells out just how aggressive they can be. Blog and Article

> Blue Cross Blue Shield of …

> An IBM-backed study suggests that most of the world's health systems will begin to fall apart by the year 2015. Release

> In a speech to a cardiology group, Schering-Plough's CEO puts forth his own set of cost-busting criteria for a managed care scorecard. (Sure, it's health plan mismanagement, not drug prices, which is driving up healthcare costs). …

> Many rural areas rely on physician's assistants to provide medical care in areas where there's no full-time doctors. The Missouri Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons wants the state to mandate that a doctor be present whenever a PA treats patients. That could have a serious impact on rural clinics. Article

> Outpatients who visit Maryland …

A new Connecticut law requires that all hospitals report infection rates by 2008. In the United States, hospital-acquired infections and other medical mistakes account for 98,000 deaths annually and increases healthcare costs by $4.5 billion. It's an important step, because hospitals rarely report infection rates on their own. Last year the Connecticut Hospital Association revealed only three infections statewide, yet the CDC estimates that at least 21,000 of the state's patients pick up …

Researchers at Johns Hopkins released a study that concludes requiring doctors and nurses to report medication errors and log them in a database improves care quality and decreases the chances that providers will make mistakes. The research, which appears in the June issue of the journal Quality & Safety in Healthcare, looked at mistakes at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. In the study, researchers found errors occur during every step of the medication process …