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A lack of compromise by lawmakers in Washington could result in spending cuts that could affect local health providers within the next two months. The cuts, also known as sequestration, have been a top issue for providers – especially hospitals – that receive federal dollars. The money at stake is caught up in the package of spending cuts and tax increases that are to start taking effect Jan. 1 – unless Congress and the president act to modify the plan. Approved as part of a deal made by Democrats and Republicans last year, the package is now commonly known as...

The Cleveland Clinic is owned by doctors. But thanks to Obamacare it's illegal for doctors to own hospitals. Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding. It has already halted the development of 24 new physician-owned hospitals and forced an additional 47 to struggle to meet the deadline to complete construction, according to the Physician Hospitals of America (PHA). You couldn't build the Cleveland Clinic today if you wanted to.

When there is a plane crash in the U.S., even a minor one, it makes headlines. There is a thorough federal investigation, and the tragedy often yields important lessons for the aviation industry. Pilots and airlines thus learn how to do their jobs more safely. The world of American medicine is far deadlier: Medical mistakes kill enough people each week to fill four jumbo jets. But these mistakes go largely unnoticed by the world at large, and the medical community rarely learns from them. The same preventable mistakes are made over and over again, and patients are left in the...

Their faces still haunt us from our paper and cyber pages, even as the days turn into weeks since that awful night at the movies. Most of us probably do not know their names; we probably could not pick them out of a list. Even those of us who have written about them may only remember a name or two. And we only know who they were – no, who they are – from the stories told by relatives and friends. For some reason, and it may just be me, but for some reason I can tell almost by looking...

Tens of thousands of patients with terminal illnesses are placed on a “death pathway” to help end their lives every year. However, in a letter to The Daily Telegraph, six doctors warn that hospitals may be using the controversial scheme to reduce strain on hospital resources. Supporters of the Liverpool Care Pathway, which allows medical staff to withhold fluid and drugs in a patient’s final days, claim it is the kindest way of letting them slip away. But the experts say in their letter that natural deaths are often freer of pain and distress. Informed consent is not

Three out of 10 specialist units will stop performing heart surgery on children following an NHS review which decided resources were spread too thinly. The Royal Brompton in Chelsea, west London, Leeds General Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital in Leicester will not stop providing surgery immediately as plans to implement the new streamlined service are still being developed. Once they stop providing surgery, probably after 2013, the units will still see patients for diagnosis, monitoring and non-surgical treatment. The consultation process by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) of England

We have found the following stocks had unusual volume spikes on Thursday, June 28, 2012. Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE:THC) had a 86.9% volume spike trading 40,717,900 shares. THC’s 30-day average volume is 5,335,410. Shares closed at $5.25 +6.71%. Tenet Healthcare Corporation is an investor-owned health care services company whose subsidiaries and affiliates mainly operate acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, diagnostic imaging centers and related health care facilities. Health Management Associates (NYSE:HMA) had a 86.1% volume spike trading 24,950,900 shares. HMA’s 30-day average volume is 3,461,860. Shares closed at $7.49 +11.79%. Health Management Associates, Inc and its subsidiariesprovide health care...

Hospitals are running out of vital drugs to treat high blood pressure, asthma and Parkinson’s disease because they are being sold abroad. At least 19 NHS trusts across England have written to the Department of Health since September to warn of shortages, according to figures obtained by Labour MP Keith Vaz. There are concerns that drugs manufactured in Britain, meant for NHS patients, are being sold to EU countries by wholesalers and pharmacists. (Snip) Although the practice is not illegal, the Government has condemned it as unethical and there are concerns that patients are being put at risk.

Do They Know Who They’re Messing With? FaithMarch 16th, 2012 David Catron During a recent conversation about the HHS anti-conscience mandate, a friend who is neither Catholic nor particularly religious asked the following rhetorical question about the Obama administration:Do these people know who they’re messing with?Her point, of course, was that the Church has spent nearly two millennia crushing attempts by secular rulers to dictate the way it carries out its charitable ministries. Commanding Catholic hospitals to fund sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortifacients isn’t like twisting the arm of some roundheel congressman. It’s going to take more than the usual...

During a recent conversation about the HHS anti-conscience mandate, a friend, neither Catholic nor particularly religious asked the following rhetorical question about Obama's administration: Do these people know who they're messing with? Her point, of course, was the Church has spent nearly two millennia crushing attempts by secular rulers to dictate the way it carries out its charitable ministries. Commanding Catholic hospitals to fund sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortifacients isn't like twisting the arm of some roundheel congressman. It's going to take more than the usual Chitown chicanery to cow a venerable, well-funded organization that has brought more than one emperor...

  Which Is Anti-Immigrant, Arizona or California? David C. Stolinsky Feb. 13, 2012 If you relied on the mainstream media, you would conclude that Arizona is anti-immigrant, while California is pro-immigrant. You would conclude that Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer must hate immigrants. After all, she signed SB-1070, which requires police to refer illegal immigrants to Immigration if they are arrested for other crimes. The law was passed after illegals committed a series of crimes, culminating in the murder of well-known rancher Robert Krentz, a man who went out of his way to help others. But Democratic California Governor...

| Feb 02, 2012 | Terry Jeffrey Posted on 02/02/2012 7:05:30 AM PST by Dr. Brian Kopp Romney Told Catholic Hospitals to Administer Abortion PillsTerry Jeffrey TownHallFeb 02, 2012A defining moment in Mitt Romney's post-pro-life-conversion political career came in his third year as governor of Massachusetts, when he decided Catholic hospitals would be required under his interpretation of a new state law to give rape victims a drug that can induce abortions. Romney announced this decision -- saying it was the "right thing for hospitals" to do -- just two days after he had taken the opposite position. The story...

January 30, 2012 Losing the Catholic Vote? By Carol Platt Liebau 1/30/2012 The Obama administration has picked a fight that is downright wrong -- and may have real political implications for the President's reelection. The Department of Health and Human Services has issued an edict that, under ObamaCare, effectively all employers will be FORCED to offer health insurance that covers subsidized contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. This means that Catholic employers (like hospitals and universities) and other Christian entities would be forced to contravene their own teachings in order to provide their employees with health insurance. The Catholic Church is...

Fuentes has spent 374 days at Community Regional Medical Center, the longest uninterrupted stay by a patient at the Fresno acute-care hospital, according to staff recollection. Doctors suspect Fuentes, 35, had gallstones that developed into a gallbladder infection, which was left untreated and progressed. The average length of hospital stay for uncomplicated pancreatitis is about two weeks, with a complicated case taking as many as 45 to 65 days, according to the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. But Fuentes' case was far from uncomplicated. Fuentes had 12 surgeries overseen by three trauma physicians -- Drs. Jim Davis, Ricard...

Hundreds of patients have been languishing for months or even years in New York City hospitals, despite being well enough to be sent home or to nursing centers for less-expensive care, because they are illegal immigrants or lack sufficient insurance or appropriate housing. As a result, hospitals are absorbing the bill for millions of dollars in unreimbursed expenses annually while the patients, trapped in bureaucratic limbo, are sometimes deprived of services that could be provided elsewhere at a small fraction of the cost. “Many of those individuals no longer need that care, but because they have no resources and many...

CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - On a recent shift at a Chicago emergency department, Dr. William Sullivan treated a newly homeless patient who was threatening to kill himself. "He had been homeless for about two weeks. He hadn't showered or eaten a lot. He asked if we had a meal tray," said Sullivan, a physician at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago and a past president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians. Sullivan said the man kept repeating that he wanted to kill himself. "It seemed almost as if he was interested in being admitted." Across the country,...

Pregnant mothers are advised to remain calm at all times, but Elli Zachariadou could not hide her shock a few weeks ago when she heard reports about women having to pay at least €900 up front in order to give birth at public hospitals. Even more shocking to Zachariadou and other Greeks was the news that a number of hospitals had turned away pregnant women because they did not have the necessary cash. “My immediate thought on hearing about the hospital charges was, how am I going to have this baby?” Zachariadou said. “You know, €900 is about three months’...

James Breedin cannot keep track of how often he has been admitted to Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., for heart problems. "It's been so many," said Breedin, a 75-year-old disabled truck driver. One reason for his frequent returns, he says, is that he often can't afford the medications his doctor prescribes to keep his heart problems in check, "so I have to do without." And though his doctors recommend regular physical activity -- a lifestyle change that could also cut the chances he will find himself in the hospital again -- he said he fears exercising outside because of...

A Queen’s University infectious disease expert has collaborated in the development of a disinfection system that may change the way hospital rooms all over the world are cleaned as well as stop bed bug outbreaks in hotels and apartments. > The new technology involves pumping a Medizone-specific ozone and hydrogen peroxide vapour gas mixture into a room to completely sterilize everything – including floors, walls, drapes, mattresses, chairs and other surfaces. It is far more effective in killing bacteria than wiping down a room. Dr. Zoutman says the technique is similar to what we now know Mother Nature uses to...

Patient care is under threat at more than 60 NHS hospitals which are “on the brink of financial collapse” because of costly private finance initiative schemes, the Health Secretary will warn. Andrew Lansley says he has been contacted by 22 health service trusts which claim their “clinical and financial stability” is being undermined by the costs of the contracts, which the Labour government used extensively to fund public sector projects. The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the trusts in jeopardy include Barts and the London, Oxford Radcliffe, North Bristol, St Helens and Knowsley, and Portsmouth. Between them the trusts run...