emergency rooms

Hospitals in King County, Washington will no longer divert critically ill patients to other facilities when their emergency rooms are crowded. Instead, hospitals in the area have agreed to treat and stabilize patients in critical condition and then transfer patients to neighboring facilities later. Because many hospitals in the area were on "divert status" 20 to 25 percent of the time, many critically-ill patients found themselves stuck in limbo at a moment when their lives were in grave …

The CDC has developed an electronic early warning system that will monitor emergency rooms across the country for the first signs of an impending pandemic or biological attack. Dubbed BioSense, the system cost $50 million to develop in 2005 and is expected to incorporate 250 emergency rooms by the end of the year. When the system is fully operational, CDC officials in Atlanta will be able to watch real time data on patient symptoms and diagnoses from 30 major metropolitan areas. The …

The maker of the synthetic blood substitute Polyheme says it did nothing wrong in a clinical trial involving tests of the product at emergency rooms across the nation. Northfield Laboratories is defending itself after a Wall Street Journal article reported that the company "quietly shut down' an earlier clinical trial when 10 of 80 patients suffered heart attacks. Company documents viewed by the newspaper reveal that researchers wrote the results off to inexperience on the part …

After a brief respite, the H5N1 virus is back in the news, as documented cases are confirmed in Africa and the European Union by international health officials. Over the weekend Greece and Italy said they detected cases of the virus, but for now experts are more worried about Africa. International health experts warn that the continent may be the perfect breeding ground for a stronger variant of the virus, noting the continent's weak governments and dilapidated central health systems may …

Logical Images says that the New York Department of Health has invested $200,000 in Visual Dx, its computerized database of photographs of smallpox and other diseases in various stages and on different skin types. Visual Dx is an image-based software system that allows doctors, nurses and other first responders to identify bioterrorism-related illnesses and other common or unusual afflictions. The system allows clinicians to enter a list of symptoms, medical history and exposure that …

Health officials in North Carolina say the state is testing a new disease monitoring system which will allow them to follow conditions in emergency rooms across the state. The system will continuously collect information on patient symptoms at emergency rooms in North Carolina on 24-hour basis. The data will allow public health officials to monitor possible emerging health threats such as an influenza outbreak or other epidemiological events. Emergency rooms will get updates every 15 …

The Department of Health and Human Services released details of the federal plan to respond to a possible H5N1 epidemic, following yesterday's announcement by President Bush that his administration plans to spend $7.1 billion preparing to fight the disease. In the event of an outbreak, authorities are likely to impose travel restrictions. State and local officials are reportedly "concerned" that they will be responsible for rationing vaccines and flu medicines and also for ensuring that …

> Can bigger, more modern emergency rooms boost profitability? Many hospitals are rethinking old theories. Article

> Genentech reports net income up 56 percent on strong sales of Avastin and Herceptin. Article

> Health Affairs examines the issue of race-based medicines, revisiting the BiDil story. …

A poll conducted by state officials in Massachusetts suggests that repeat visitors to emergency rooms account for a disproportionate share of visits. That in itself isn't much news for hospitals, but some of the details uncovered make for interesting reading. According to researchers, about 4 percent of ER visitors account for about 17 percent of visits. Contrary to the prevailing myth, most have health insurance. The majority (55 percent) are female. One patient visited emergency rooms …

With weight-loss reduction surgery increasingly popular, many hospitals are discovering that the field is a welcome source of revenue. A fair number have concluded that offering the obesity treatment can help offset the expenses of revenue drains like emergency rooms and the cost of providing care to the uninsured. That is leading to increased competition among hospitals in states like California, where the law often makes it difficult for insurers to turn down claims. Critics wonder, …