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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...

Just as students head back to college and families finish summer vacations comes the latest bad news from pest control companies: Bedbug infestations are getting worse and becoming more common in some places, including dorms, hotels, nursing homes, hospitals, office buildings, and schools and day-care centers. According to a survey released Wednesday by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky, pest control companies say there has been double-digit growth in infestations in the past year. About 54 percent of pest companies reported treating bedbugs in college dorms, compared with 35 percent in 2010; 80 percent reported treating...

Hospitals in Massachusetts will reap an annual windfall of $275 million due to a loophole enshrined in the new health care law. Hospitals in most other states will get less money as a result. The disclosure was buried in a regulation that Medicare issued late last week. Hospital association executives in other states are up in arms over the news, which comes at a time when they are girding for more cuts under the newly signed federal debt deal. "If I could think of a better word than outrageous, I would come up with it," said Steve Brenton, president of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospitals in Massachusetts will reap an annual windfall of $275 million through a loophole enshrined in the new health care law. Hospitals in most other states will get less money as a result. Hospital association executives in other states are up in arms over the news, buried in a Medicare regulation issued Monday. It comes at a time when hospitals face more cuts under the newly signed federal debt deal. "If I could think of a better word than outrageous, I would come up with it," said Steve Brenton, president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Even Medicare...

The death toll at a hospital where medical supplies were deliberately sabotaged could rise still further, police said last night, after they began investigating the deaths of two more patients. Detectives launched a murder inquiry last week after three people being treated at the Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport died when batch of saline solution was contaminated with insulin Rebecca Leighton, 27, a nurse at the hospital was still being questioned last night after being arrested on suspicion of murder. She was arrested on Wednesday morning at her flat just a mile from the hospital where she was employed as...

In a long-sought move, the University of Miami won a legislative victory on Wednesday when Florida lawmakers agreed to extend state lawsuit protection to university doctors working in public hospitals. Gov. Rick Scott will likely sign the bill into law. Scott is also expected to sign another lawsuit-limitation bill that passed Wednesday that changes the way people can sue automobile makers. The vote to give “sovereign immunity” to UM has been years in the making. The state protects government hospital employees, residents and interns — including those at Miami’s Jackson Health System — from major medical malpractice judgments. But UM...

The joke that's going around is that the Mayans got it wrong: The world is ending this year, not 2012. Here's the lates sign of that. A superbug is spreading around America, and has hit Southern California. LA Times: A dangerous drug-resistant bacterium has spread to patients in Southern California, according to a study by Los Angeles County public health officials. More than 350 cases of the Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, or CRKP, have been reported at healthcare facilities in Los Angeles County, mostly among elderly patients at skilled-nursing and long-term care facilities, according to a study by Dr. Dawn Terashita,...

HOSPITALS are being forced to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on super-strong beds for patients weighing up to 72 stone. NHS trusts across the country have spent five-figure sums on hiring or buying reinforced beds. The City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust spent £34,780 on five beds, and rents another four. It has also had to provide trolleys, chairs and toilets capable of holding very obese patients and make doorways bigger. North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust has spent £38,000 on the specialist beds, County Durham and Darlington £21,761, Newcastle £10,172 and South Tees £17,158. Officials at South Tees Hospitals...

Monday will be the one-year anniversary of the House passage of ObamaCare. To mark this occasion, IBD is going look at some new problems that have already developed due to this law. But first we’ll examine how ObamaCare fails to address chronic hospital inefficiency. “Hospitals have not adopted the practices that have led to productivity gains in other industries,” said Rich Garnick, CEO of Anthelio, which works with hospitals to improve efficiency. Garnick says hospitals lack “a seamless approach for tracking information.”

It is a strange thing when those who would pay them support higher taxes. Yet that is what we are seeing around the country as states wrestle with how to shoehorn the burgeoning cost of Medicaid into their budgets. Health care providers, led by hospitals and nursing home operators, are stepping forward to support taxes on their revenues. They are hoping states will take the tax money, use it to get Medicaid matching funds from the federal government, then leave health care out of the fray when cutting state budgets. To some, this may rightly sound like a form of...

Arizona lawmakers are trying to widen the state's illegal immigration crackdown with a proposal to require hospitals to confirm whether patients are in the country legally. The National Conference of State Legislatures says it knows of no other states considering similar bills. The proposal being heard late Monday by the Arizona Senate's judiciary committee would require hospitals to contact immigration authorities if a patient is an illegal immigrant.

GALVESTON — The crushing news came last month as Maria Sanchez was being prepared for surgery to remove a banana-size tumor along her spine that had crept between her vertebrae. Unable to use her right hand because of the growing tumor, Sanchez, 24, had been at the University of Texas Medical Branch's John Sealy Hospital for six days when, she said, a Spanish-speaking doctor told her she had to leave the hospital immediately because she was an illegal immigrant. The doctor said she should have surgery in Mexico, according to Sanchez. Sanchez's hospital records state that she was discharged because...

Top Hospitals Across United States Ranked Based on Patient Mortality Emma Hitt, PhD processing....   January 26, 2010 — A first-ever ranking of the nation's top 50 hospitals based on a comprehensive study of patient death and complication rates at nearly 5000 hospitals has been released this week.The study was conducted by HealthGrades as part of the ninth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study. The analysis was based on approximately 40 million Medicare patient discharges for the years 2007, 2008, and 2009.The study, led by Kristin Reed, MPH, Carol Nicholas, MSTC, and Rick May, MD, with the...

Repeal of ObamaCare can't come soon enough -- as several damaging provisions are set to take effect this year. For starters, it has effectively stopped the construction of physician-owned hospitals throughout the country. Section 6001 of the health-care law required physician-owned hospitals to obtain their Medicare certification by the end of last year. Without it, they can't treat Medicare patients. And the facilities needed to be open to get that certification. So construction halted at 45 hospitals as the New Year arrived. Work on countless others will never start, having been effectively banned by ObamaCare. This will limit competition in...