hospital officials

Death rates spike in Sacramento County EDs

Anne Zieger — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:02:05 -0400

It's a fact of life that people die in emergency departments, of course. But in Sacramento County, CA, it seems they're dying at higher rates than in virtually any other county in the state. Unfortunately, hospital officials there aren't sure how to account for the death rate gap, as there's no obvious demographic difference between Sacramento County residents and their neighbors--making it harder to reduce the numbers.

Emergency rooms in Sacramento lost 27 out of every 10,000 patients during the last three years, compared with a statewide average of 17. That makes Sacramento County's ED death rate the second highest in the state. Since there's no obvious reason for these differences, county health planners have come up with lots of possibilities.

Some theorize that Sacramento's population might be more prone to sicknesses that send people to the ED, while others suggest that ambulances are more likely to bring terminal patients to the hospital here. Still others suggest that the numbers that made Sacramento County stand out aren't worth much--that data collection by hospitals has been sloppy enough to account for the differences all by its lonesome.

Still, anomalies like this are going to get a lot of attention in the future--as the world gets steadily more transparent--so expect to duke this issues out in public.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this Sacramento Bee article

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NY hospital worker charged with massive file theft

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

A New York hospital employee was charged this weekend with stealing almost 50,000 patient files and selling some of them. The worker, patient admissions representative Dwight McPherson, was accused of stealing records from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center starting in March 2006 on. The files stolen probably contained little or no medical information, but did include patient names, phone numbers and Social Security numbers--fertile ground for identity theft. McPherson previously had told investigators that a Brooklyn man offered him money in exchange for personal information on male patients born between 1950 and 1970. McPherson then sold the man 1,000 files for $750. He also admitted to selling another 1,000 patient documents to a different man. Hospital officials now are attempting to contact patients whose records were stolen.

To learn more about the file theft:
- read this New York Times piece

Poll Question: What are your thoughts on the trend of personal information being leaked?

GA may approve sweeping CON changes

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:59:56 -0400

Georgia seems well on its way to approving a new bill that would remove most of the state's Certificate of Need restrictions. The state House of Representatives is considering a measure, championed by a few legislators, which would help general surgeons open ambulatory surgery centers. It also would let hospitals build parking decks and other non-clinical projects without state permission and lift obstetrics restrictions on some hospitals, as well as allowing more hospitals to perform heart procedures like diagnostic catheterizations. If passed, the bill would institute the biggest changes in the CON system since it was enacted more than 25 years ago.

Despite gifts to the hospital industry, some hospital officials remain in opposition. They're uncomfortable with a few facets of the bill, particularly the ambulatory surgery changes. Their lobbyists argue that the bill would give the ASCs an unfair advantage. Other hospital groups, including rural hospitals, are in favor of its passage.

To learn more about the CON changes:
- read this Atlanta Journal-Constitution piece

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NV hospital hired clinics accused of lax practices

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

An area medical center is coming under fire to defend a $1 million contract with a group of clinics now under investigation for potentially widespread infection control failures. The contract has been canceled since the scandal broke, however, University Medical Centers executives, who signed the deal last year with Dr. Dipak Desai, remain under fire because of that deal. Among Desai's clinics are the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, where six patients contracted Hepatitis C and another 40,000 patients seem to be at risk. Not only are the unsafe conditions under question, hospital officials are wondering why Desai's group got $1 million to direct the hospital's gastroenterology department, more than four times the $210,000 they got for the same work in 2006. Hospital officials said that they gave Desai the raise, less, actually than the $1.85 million he'd demanded, given that they had only two appropriate candidates. Now, despite shelling out big bucks, the hospital is back where it started, struggling to fill the hole in its program.

To learn more about the deal:
- read this Las Vegas Sun piece

Related Article:
Las Vegas clinic may have infected 40,000 patients. Report

Case study: Tx. hospital 'cocoons' to contain whooping cough

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:59:54 -0500

Hoping to contain what is becoming an epidemic of whooping cough, Houston, Tx.-based Texas Children's Hospital has launched a program designed to contain the infection by immunizing family members. Hospital officials say that this program can effectively prevent whooping cough within the most vulnerable population, infants less than 6 months. More than 75 percent of infants who get whooping cough are infected by other members of their household; in 33 percent of the cases it's mothers, 16 percent of the time fathers and 19 percent of the time siblings.

Under this "cocoon strategy," parents who might spread the infection are given booster shots. The $35 shot will be given free of charge to 5,800 families the first year, delivering a total of about 17,000 shots. The program is funded by a joint grant from the Methodist hospital and Baylor College of Medicine.

The hospital is taking this step as the number of diagnosed cases of whooping cough in the U.S. spikes. More than 25,000 cases of the infection were reported in 2004 and 2005, three times more than in the 90s and at least six times more than in the 80s. Levels are at the highest they've been since the 1950s, public health officials say.

To learn more about the program:
- read this Houston Chronicle piece

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Another LA hospital sued for patient dumping

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:59:56 -0500

A Los Angeles-area hospital has been sued by civil rights attorneys over the alleged dumping of a paraplegic man on LA's Skid Row last year. According to published reports, a driver working for Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center left the man to crawl in a gutter while dragging a catheter bag.

The man, Gabino Olvera, had been taken to the hospital after an automobile accident. The suit claims that hospital officials failed to diagnose or treat his for a urinary tract infection or detect signs of mental illness. After his treatment, the man was taken by ambulance to the Midnight mission in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, and left without a wheelchair. He was later brought back to the hospital, where he was alleged ignored for eight hours, then driven back to Skid Row, where witnesses watched the man crawl away without help.

The suit not only asks for punitive and compensatory damages against the hospital for alleged elder abuse, negligence and infliction of emotional distress, it also asks for an injunction barring the hospital and van company from dumping homeless patients in the future.

To find out more about the suit:
- read this Los Angeles Times article

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Mentally ill wait days in Georgia EDs

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:59:55 -0500

It's a solution that doesn't work well for anybody. In Georgia, patients with acute mental illness are waiting up to three days in hospital emergency departments before being admitted to state mental hospitals. The patients are uncomfortable, and the hospital's scarce ED resources are diverted to patients that aren't its primary focus. However, hospitals have little choice but to maintain these patients, as they can't turn them loose until a transfer can be made. Meanwhile, mentally-ill patients are sometimes doing damage while they wait, as in the case of one Georgia man who set a fire in a room in one hospital. And of course, the patients are getting no treatment of substance while they're warehoused in ED beds.

The backup is happening because there's a significant lack of beds available in the state's psychiatric facilities, despite the fact that the state has contracted with private facilities to handle overflow from the state facilities. According to hospital officials, state hospitals are so stressed that they're even turning away patients sent over to their facilities by med/surg hospitals. At a recent state hearing, advocates suggested that the state hospitals are going to be overwhelmed by cases until community mental health services are improved.

To learn more about this problem:
- read this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article

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U of Pittsburgh gets DOJ information request

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:59:58 -0500

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has just disclosed that it got a request for competitive information last summer from the U.S. Department of Justice. The request, which didn't name any potential violations, covered several prior years. The DOJ is asking for information on health insurance and hospital services in the Pittsburgh metro, including potentially anti-competitive agreements. This is the second such request made to UPMC in recent months--in March of this year, a Federal Trade Commission investigation nearly stalled a then-pending merger between UPMC and Mercy Hospital.

Hospital officials have said that the request didn't surprise them much given the nasty competitive battles brewing in the region. This includes some loud complaints over the Mercy merger, which has been challenged strongly by competing West Penn Allegheny Health System. (West Allegheny itself got a DOJ "civil investigative demand" for competitive information in January.) They also note that the proposed merger of Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Pittsburgh) and Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia has raised concerns in many quarters over health market consolidation in the state.

To learn more about the investigation:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece

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Hospital, state senator targets of federal investigation

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:59:56 -0500

This week, federal investigators are searching the home and legislative offices of New Jersey state Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D) as part of a ongoing corruption investigation. In pursuing the investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office has subpoenaed records from legislators and their staff members about the senator's relationship with Hackensack University Medical Center, where he worked as a plumbing and construction consultant. The senator, who worked at the hospital between 2004 and 2006, got $5,500 per month.

Federal authorities are scrutinizing Coniglio's business dealings as part of whether some legislators have been benefiting from state grant money which has been put into the budget without any external, public review since 2002. Government corruption is a major issue in the state, where more than 100 officials (including some hospital officials) have been convicted on related charges over the past five years. (Yeah, I know, cue the theme from The Sopranos--but this is serious, guys.)

To learn more about the case:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece

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Beth Israel, union fight war of words

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:59:55 -0400

To hear CEO Paul Levy tell it, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is being as reasonable as possible in dealing with organizing efforts by the Service Employees International Union. To the SEIU, however, Levy and other hospital officials are not playing ball when it comes to permitting "free and fair" secret ballot elections for employees. The battle has been going on for nearly a year, and the temperature of the rhetoric continues to climb.

In postings on his blog, Running a Hospital, Levy argues that BIDMC's union policy meets National Labor Relations Board standards, and explicitly gives employees the freedom to discuss unionization or organize. The SEIU, however, isn't satisfied. It would like to see the hospital explicitly agree not to use "patient care funds" to discourage union participation--a term Levy suggests is too ambiguous to be workable. All told, it looks like the two sides have a way to go before they're even speaking the same language.

To learn more about the dispute:
- read this item from The Boston Globe

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