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Financially troubled Century City Doctors Hospital gave up hope of finding a buyer and began shutting down Friday, according to hospital executives. Officially, the facility said it would cease operations late next week. The hospital's emergency room -- a key element of the county's increasingly fragile emergency safety net -- will be closed today, and about 30 remaining patients will be discharged or transferred to nearby facilities beginning this weekend. Regionally, 14 emergency rooms have been closed in the last five years, including 10 in Los Angeles County. After the closure, there will be 74 ERs remaining in the county....

Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities. Michelle Obama -- currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital -- helped create the program, which aims to find neighborhood doctors for low-income people who were flooding the emergency room for basic treatment. Hospital officials say such patients hinder their ability to focus on more critically ill patients in need of...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Mexico's war on drugs is costing American taxpayers big bucks, as the U.S. government is bringing Mexican casualties from the conflict to hospitals north of the border and paying for medical treatment. According to The Los Angeles Times, El Paso’s Thomason Hospital has treated 28 victims of the Mexican drug war this year, at a cost of about $1 million. The costs are not confined to medical treatment. With the border area becoming a battle zone where drug gangs, seeking to finish the job by pursuing their victims even into hospitals, Thomason has had on occasion been turned into an...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2008 – The U.S. military is building scores of new medical clinics across Iraq as part of an American-Iraqi partnership to improve health care services for the Iraqi people, U.S. and Iraqi officials said yesterday. During a Baghdad news conference, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey J. Dorko, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Gulf Region Division, said myriad initiatives are under way to enhance and promote health care in Iraq. The Gulf Region Division plays a role in renovating and constructing medical facilities across Iraq so its citizens can have safe, functional places to seek care,...

Please Pray for my husband Dom.He is 50 and had a stroke on Sunday.I have been a freeper for awhile and find enjoyment and great information from my fellow freepers. My husband worked all his life, seven days a week,but we can not afford health insurance and a mortgage.I am so worried about my husband ,he has no vision or hearing in his left side and cannot walk.He also has vertigo,all from the stroke.I was told by the hospital they can take my house and all we saved if I don't make payment.I have been hearing this since Sunday.I have...

The other day I heard my mother call downstairs to my father, “Honey, there are a bunch of roosters out in the front yard.” Lest you think we live on a farm or out in rural America, let me set you straight. We live in suburban America where houses are stamped next to each other every hundred feet or so. We don’t get many roosters walking in our neighborhood, and if we did they would be cited for jaywalking. So it was no surprise that curiosity got the best of my father as he ran up the stairs to check...

NEW YORK - Video from a surveillance camera at a Brooklyn hospital shows a woman dying on the floor of a psychiatric emergency room while people nearby ignore her. The video was released Monday by lawyers suing Kings County Hospital alleging neglect and abuse of mental health patients at the facility. The video shows the 49-year-old woman keeling over and falling out of her chair on June 19 and lying facedown on the floor, then thrashing before going still. About an hour passed before someone realized what was happening and tried to help.

Do US Hospitals Harm Patients for Profit? By Clark Baker On the Massachusetts border that joins with Connecticut and Rhode Island, the green woods and blue waters of Lake Chaubunagungamaug shimmer in the summer breeze. Turning northeast along Sutton Road, it’s easy to see why America’s first colonists settled in these gently rolling hills and tilled its fields. In the fall, the thick green forests turn into a kaleidoscope of rusty yellows, reds, and browns before the first snow falls. At Nipmuck Pond, you won’t notice that Sutton Road has become Cliff Road until it changes again to Joe Jenny...

Private companies to take over failing NHS hospitals By Rebecca Smith and Andrew Porter Last Updated: 11:09PM BST 03/06/2008 Private companies are to be drafted in to run failing NHS hospitals for the first time, under plans to be announced. Poor managers are to be sacked without receiving large payouts and replaced by staff from profit-making companies who would be paid with public money. The NHS will retain ownership of hospital buildings and services but the private firm will "take over" the day to day running of the hospital. Ministers believe the proposals will drive up standards within the health...

Bond measure to improve children's hospitals on ballot A $980 million bond measure aimed at modernizing and expanding children's hospitals in California has qualified for the November ballot.

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, May 8, 2008 – Wilford Hall Medical Center here has launched a new program emphasizing the importance of literacy to parents and children alike. Reach Out and Read, a national nonprofit organization, uses several methods to promote early literacy as part of routine pediatric care, including having volunteers reading aloud in pediatric waiting rooms. Its main approach, though, is to promote literacy during well-baby or well-child visits for children from ages 6 months through 4 years. Pediatric providers trained in the Reach Out and Read model offer age-appropriate tips to emphasize to parents and...

Baghdad: A controversial Iraqi politician has revealed that scores of Iraqi children are being treated in Tel Aviv, however, Mithal Al Alousi, has denied any role in transferring these children for treatment. "My information indicates that 180 Iraqi children are being treated for heart disease in Tel Aviv and this process is ongoing. Iraqi children have the right to have medical treatment anywhere, including Israel, because we should not ask patients about the source of treatment or medication," Al Alousi told Gulf News. However, Al Alousi has not disclosed his source and has also denied being behind sending the children...

An Iraqi Insurgent Tell-All: Al-Qaida Is To Blame For "Killing Sunnis" And "Demolishing Their Homes, Mosques, and Their Hospitals" By Evan Kohlmann The NEFA Foundation has obtained a copy of a recent interview with a senior military commander of the Hamas al-Iraq insurgent group in the restive Diyala province of Iraq. During the interview, the unnamed Hamas commander sharply condemned the "criminal actions launched by the Al-Qaida network targeting innocent civilians and... other jihad movements... The occupying forces were unable to enter many districts and villages of Diyala until Al-Qaida paved the way for them when they began killing the...

Norway's state treasury is set to overflow, local analysts claim. Some think the price of North Sea crude oil will hit USD 130 a barrel, pumping even more "petrokroner" into the state budget and giving politicians few excuses to limit its use. Norway's oil and gas industry is hotter than ever, but many Norwegians complain that government services are nonetheless declining. Some grades of crude oil hit USD 111 a barrel this week, before easing on Friday. The North Sea Brent crude that's been pumping up Norway's economy for years was being traded at just over USD 107 a barrel...

LONDON - A patient was told there was no reason why he couldn't have surgery in a hospital, despite the smell caused by a dead rodent trapped in the building's ceiling. Andrew Cowper was due to have an operation at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Hertfordshire when staff "were made aware of a dead rodent in the single storey unit's roof space," the hospital said in a statement. The hospital said its experts concluded that the dead animal was outside the operating theater and posed no risk. But "despite being told that the trust's infection control experts had stated...

In coming weeks, private audit companies will begin scouring mountains of medical records. Their mission: Determine if health care providers erred when billing Medicare and require them to return any overpayments to the federal government. The auditors will keep a tidy percentage for their services. The contractors have shown they're pretty good at their work. In just three years, they've returned more than $300 million to the federal government -- and that's just from three states. That experiment is winding down. But a larger, national program will soon take its place. The rollout of "recovery audit contractors" will be gradual....

Study Looks At Death Rates Over Several Years A group that studied approximately 100 million cases from 5,000 hospitals has named the 50 best hospitals in the U.S. HealthGrades.com said that the hospitals in the top 1 percent had a death rate 27 percent lower on average than the national average. For the rankings, the group looks at clinical results for 27 procedures and conditions. To be named on of the 50 best, the hospitals had to have elite scores every year of the study. Also, they do not ask to be included. The list includes nationally known names such...

Muslim women working at U.K. medical facilities are increasingly refusing to comply with the basic hygiene standard of rolling up their sleeves when their washing hands, it was reported. According to the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph, female workers are ignoring Britain's Department of Health rules requiring medics to be "bare below the elbow" because they consider showing any skin — outside the hands and face — immodest. The guidelines were put into place to stave off the spread of infectious killer bugs like MRSA and Clostridium difficile, which have been implicated in the deaths of hundreds of hospital patients, according to...

(NewsTarget) Nearly five percent of patients in U.S. hospitals may have acquired a particular antibiotic resistant staph infection, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Researchers surveyed a total of 1,200 hospitals and other health care facilities from all 50 states, and found 8,000 patients infected or colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) -- or 46 out of every 1,000. This suggests that up to 1.2 million hospital patients across the country may be infected every year. Colonized patients are those who were found to be carrying the bacteria in...

The proposed sale that would transfer two Exempla Healthcare hospitals in the Denver metropolitan area to a Catholic organization that does not allow abortion and birth-control procedures at its facilities has been endorsed by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. The hospitals, Lutheran and Good Samaritan, soon could fall under the management of Catholic Health Care Services, which, among other things, does not provide abortions, forms of sterilization including tubal ligation and vasectomies, and emergency contraception pills, known as the abortion pill. Suthers concluded in his legal opinion that the transfer wouldn't violate state laws concerning nonprofit groups, and that the...

TURMOIL: Beds are moved five times a day OVERWORKED nurses have been ordered to stop all medical work five times every day to move Muslim patients’ beds so they face towards Mecca. The lengthy procedure, which also includes providing fresh bathing water, is creating turmoil among overstretched staff on bustling NHS wards. But despite the havoc, Mid- Yorkshire NHS Trust says the rule must be instigated whenever possible to ensure Muslim patients have “a more comfortable stay in hospital”. And a taxpayer-funded training programme for several hundred hospital staff has begun to ensure that all are familiar with the workings...

More than 90,000 patients die and almost one million are harmed each year because of hospital blunders, research suggests. Errors during surgery, misdiagnosis, falls, infections and complications are all to blame for the problems that contribute to the death and injury tolls in England each year. Prof Trevor Sheldon, the author of the study published in the British Medical Journal, said a stay in hospital was as "risky as bungee jumping". He examined medical notes from one hospital over six months and said the results were representative of what is happening across the country. In 15 per cent of cases...

U.S. to Offer Turkey Help on PKK The U.S. is to offer Turkey a package of measures to dissuade Ankara from mounting a large-scale military incursion into Iraq to attack PKK Kurdish guerrillas, who have killed scores of Turkish soldiers in recent weeks. Ahead of a meeting in Washington on Monday between President George W. Bush and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, U.S. officials said Ankara would have to get concrete American help to combat the PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq from where it frequently launches attacks into Turkey. “Erdogan has to go back with the...

Border Patrol agent James Jacques monitored the road that leads to Barrett Junction yesterday The fact that 11 of the 18 wildfire victims lying in UCSD Medical Center's burn unit are illegal immigrants with no apparent health coverage highlights the daunting financial challenge hospitals face in providing long-term, intensive care for all those who need it. “These are the most expensive kinds of cases, but we don't look at these patients and say, oh, because they aren't legal residents, we'll stop providing care or stop changing their bandages,” said Dr. Thomas McAfee, UCSD's physician-in-chief. “It's part of our ethic to...

Brotman Medical Center, a key healthcare provider serving Los Angeles' Westside, is expected to seek protection from creditors in Bankruptcy Court as early as next week, according to three executives familiar with the matter. Administrators at the 420-bed hospital in Culver City have tried for months to avoid filing a bankruptcy petition but have continued struggling to pay its growing debt. Brotman became the center of a firestorm last month when state health inspectors released a report finding that doctors and nurses failed to provide proper care to a mentally disabled woman, who died after a series of medical mistakes....

THOUSANDS of Victorians are waiting more than 24 hours - in some cases longer than five days - on hospital trolleys before they can get a bed in a ward. Figures obtained by Fairfax newspapers show the bed shortage is creating a logjam across the public system. About 2700 patients are waiting longer than a day in emergency departments in the past financial year. The Brumby Government's target reveals no patient should spend longer than 24 hours in emergency before being admitted to a ward. And 57 patients were in an emergency department for three days or longer, the figures...

Nurses who didn't wash their hands and left patients lying in soiled beds were cited in an official report blaming mismanagement for the deaths of 90 people who contracted a bacterial infection in hospitals in southern England. "Significant failings" at all levels contributed to infections of more than 1,000 patients at three hospitals, the Healthcare Commission said Thursday. The patients were infected with Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, which can cause diarrhea, colitis and other intestinal problems, officials said. "The Healthcare Commission has passed the copy of the report to us and that is being reviewed," said a spokesman for...

On July 25, 2007, Congress introduced The Childrens' Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act of 2007 (H.R. 3162) which attacks physician hospitals. Section 651 of the CHAMP bill has the effect of abolishing the right of physicians to own and operate hospitals. All referrals by physicians to hospitals in which they have an ownership interest would be banned under passages in the late pages of the initial draft. Additionally, all existing physician hospitals would be prevented from any growth or expansion, and would face severe curtailment in ownership, funding, and operating abilities.

Al Qaeda 'Re-Emerging' in Pakistan Sanctuaries The U.S. military said Tuesday it expected Al Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan. Sanctuary was provided to Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a U.S. military official said. The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those...

Nearly two dozen private hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties, accounting for up to 15% of beds in the region, are in dire financial straits and in danger of bankruptcy or closure, according to hospital administrators, industry experts and state data. The troublesome development follows the closure of community clinics and hospitals in recent years that has left the healthcare system seriously overburdened. If even a few other hospitals close or reduce costly critical-care services, it could mean longer ambulance rides to hospitals, additional delays in emergency rooms and less access to care, especially for poor and uninsured people....

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A row of beds lies empty in the emergency ward of Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital. The morgue, which once overflowed with corpses, is barely a quarter full. Doctors at the hospital, a barometer of bloodshed in the Iraqi capital, say there has been a sharp fall in victims of violence admitted during a seven-month security campaign. Last month the fall was particularly dramatic, with 70 percent fewer bodies and half the number of wounded brought in compared to July, hospital director Haqi Ismail said. "The major incidents, like explosions and car bombs, sometimes reached six or seven a...

Source: BioMed Central Date: September 9, 2007 Cell Phones Should Be Kept Away From Hospital Beds, Dutch Experts Say Science Daily — Cell phones should come no closer than one meter to hospital beds and equipment, according Dutch research published in the online open access journal, Critical Care. Scientists demonstrated that incidents of electromagnetic interference (EMI) from second and third generation mobile phones occurred even at distance of three meters. Hazardous incidents of electromagnetic interference from second and third generation mobile phones varied from a total switch off and restart of mechanical ventilator and complete stops without alarms in syringe...

NO surprises” is a basic rule in hospitals. Junior doctors are supposed to notify their superiors promptly about worrisome developments in a patient, and information is supposed to move smoothly up the chain of command. One of the gravest errors a doctor in training can make is to inform the attending physician well after the fact about a patient’s turn for the worse. Unfortunately, this rule does not extend to seriously ill patients themselves. They and their families are frequently surprised by the sudden imminence — and the raging authority — of death. Research has revealed doctors’ tendency to contribute...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 — In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars. Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients. Under the new rules, to be published next week, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain “conditions that could reasonably have been prevented.” Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers;...

HOSPITAL staff in the Lothians have been told not to eat at their desks to avoid offending Muslim colleagues during Ramadan. NHS Lothian has advised doctors and other health workers not to have working lunches during the 30-day fast, which begins next month. The health service's Equality and Diversity Officer sent an e-mail to all senior managers, giving guidance on religious tolerance. This includes ensuring Muslim staff are given breaks to pray, and time off to celebrate Eid at the end of Ramadan. It is understood they also advised hospital managers to move food trolleys away from areas where Muslims...

How are abortion clinics protecting themselves against charges under the partial-birth abortion ban? By ensuring unborn babies are dead by injecting them first with lethal drugs before aborting them. The practice has been adopted by many abortion providers across the U.S. in the wake of the Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, reported the Boston Globe. The banned abortion procedure is particularly grisly. It requires the abortion doctor to partially deliver a live baby, then kill it by inserting scissors into the base of its head and using a suctioning machine to remove its brain. Other procedures,...

After federal officials unequivocally decided today to revoke $200 million in funding, Los Angeles County's top health official said he would quickly begin closing Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, which has repeatedly shown itself unable to meet minimum standards for patient care. County health director Dr. Bruce Chernof notified the county Board of Supervisors of his emergency decision after the hospital failed its final test, a top-to-bottom review by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The decision in effect marks an end to nearly four years of failed attempts to reform the historic institution, treasured by many African...

Los Angeles (AP) -- Federal regulators announced Friday they are pulling $200 million in funding from Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, a move that will almost certainly force the medical center that serves one of the city's poorest inner-city neighborhoods to close. The decision was made after the hospital failed two federal inspections, including one last month, in which it was found that "conditions at the facility have placed the health and safety of patients at great risk," said Herb Kuhn, the acting deputy administrator for the U.S.. Centers of Medicare and Medical Services. "While some progress has been made,...

U.S. hospitals are increasingly shutting down their burn centers in a trend experts say could leave the nation unable to handle widespread burn casualties from a fiery terrorist attack or other major disaster. Associated Press interviews and an examination of official figures found that the shrinking number of beds is a growing cause for concern in this post-Sept. 11 world. Experts say burn centers are expensive to maintain and often lose money because they are staffed with highly specialized surgeons and nurses and stocked with sophisticated equipment designed to ease patients' excruciating pain, fend off deadly complications and promote healing....

LAS VEGAS - A woman has won a court fight to keep the placenta after her daughter’s birth. She had planned to grind it up and ingest it as a way to fight postpartum depression, but now plans to bury it. Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday, ordering Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in southern Nevada to return the placenta to Anne Swanson.

ONE kind of new year comes for all of us in January — the one we celebrate with Champagne. But another, more stressful new year begins for doctors in July, when the new interns arrive in our emergency rooms, clinics and wards. Hospital personnel have always joked, “Don’t get sick in July,” since for decades the trainees were loosely supervised. Today, most hospitals closely watch over interns. But at the start of this new medical year, a significant deficiency remains in the system: the way in which doctors are trained to think. One of my first experiences with the problem...

Mary Zwo was six weeks old, neglected by her mother and abused by her father, when she was admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit at a university hospital. Mary was dehydrated, with low blood sugar and at risk of hypothermia. Doctors quickly put her in an incubator. Mary Zwo is a gorilla. "Gorilla babies are similar to human babies," the German zoo director in the western German city of Munster explained to der Speigel magazine. Her human caretakers ("caregivers"?) thought the care in a veterinary clinic wouldn't be good enough.

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday his government will nationalize Venezuela's privately owned hospitals and clinics if they fail to reduce health care costs. "If the owners of the private clinics don't want to obey the laws, then the private clinics will be nationalized," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech. "They will become part of the public health service." Venezuela has a two-tiered health system in which wealthier, insured patients often can afford prompter, better treatment at private hospitals. "This is the evil of capitalism," Chavez said of the health care costs at private clinics. "We have...

IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT AND THE VICE PRESIDENT, THEY ARE TRAITORS TO AMERICA, AND SO ARE ALL OF THEIR SUPPORTERS. IMPEACH! ANYONE IN CONGRESS WHO REFUSES TO SAVE OUR UNION FROM THESE TRAITORS BY DOING NOTHING NEEDS TO BE RECALLED. SAVE OUR TROOPS!!! SAVE OUR SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS AND JOBS. FEED OUR HUNGRY AND POOR! SAVE THE DROWNING PEOPLE IN NEW ORLEANS! ANYONE WHO MENTIONS PARIS HILTON ONE MORE TIME MUST DIE!

WASHINGTON, June 21 — The federal government has gingerly stepped back into rating the care delivered by the nation’s hospitals, releasing for the first time in nearly two decades a list of hospitals where heart patients are most likely to die. Officials at the 42 hospitals on the list, which represent about 1 percent of hospitals nationally, said either that they were shocked by the numbers or refused to comment at all. “We were stunned when this issue was raised with us,” said Dr. Brian D’Arcy, chief medical officer of the Catholic Health System of Western New York. Kenmore Mercy...

In the 40 minutes before a woman's death last month at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, two separate callers pleaded with 911 dispatchers to send help because the hospital staff was ignoring her as she writhed on the floor, according to audio recordings of the calls. "My wife is dying and the nurses don't want to help her out," Jose Prado, the woman's boyfriend, told the 911 dispatcher through an interpreter. He was calling from a pay phone outside the hospital, his tone increasingly desperate as he described how his 43-year-old girlfriend was spitting up blood. The Los Angeles County...

British hospitals 'among worst for superbugs' By Bruno Waterfield and Nic Fleming Last Updated: 2:22am BST 08/06/2007 British hospitals are among the worst in Europe for superbugs, according to figures published yesterday. Britain was found to be the fifth worst country for superbug resistance In a league table of 29 countries only Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and Romania have higher proportions of potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant hospital-acquired infections. Only some forms of superbugs are resistant to antibiotics - including those known as MRSA. They are part of the staphylococcus aureus family of bacteria that can live on the skin or in the...

Call for hospital police in China By Daniel Griffiths BBC News, Beijing China's health ministry is calling for police to be stationed in hospitals, to protect medical workers from attacks by angry patients and their relatives. Such disputes have become increasingly common in China in recent years. The Chinese government says last year there were more than 9,000 attacks on medical workers and facilities, causing more than $25m (£12.5m) of damage. In one well publicised incident, staff at a southern Chinese hospital had to wear safety helmets for protection. Under-resourced Poor regulation has led to rampant corruption, including overcharging and...

ALBANY, May 9 — The Republican and Democratic leaders of the State Legislature said Wednesday that they wanted Gov. Eliot Spitzer to reconsider a plan approved last year to close, merge or shrink dozens of hospitals across the state. The comments by Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, and Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, came during and after a public meeting that Mr. Spitzer convened to identify legislation that might win approval before the end of the legislative session in six weeks. While they disagreed on some other issues, Mr. Bruno and Mr. Silver appeared to agree when it...