By Rachana Pradhan and Fred Schulte, Kaiser Health News May 9, 2020 The Trump administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic-related bailouts to health care providers with checkered histories, including a Florida-based cancer center that agreed to pay a $100 million criminal penalty as part of a federal antitrust investigation. At least … Continue reading KHN: Bailout Cash Goes To Big Players That Have Paid Millions To Settle Allegations Of Wrongdoing
Boston
Partners in Health take questions on COVID-19
From PHI PIH CEO Dr. Sheila Davis; Dr. Joia Mukherjee, chief medical officer; Daniel Orozco, director of clinical operations; and Emily Dally, director of impact, participated in the hour-long discussion. From April 2. https://youtu.be/Nq4faLcP1p8
Ventilators? From the Globe and STAT
From The Boston Globe Massachusetts health officials issued guidelines Tuesday to help hospitals make gut-wrenching decisions about how to ration ventilators, should they become overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and run out of critical treatments. The guidance, which is not mandatory, asks hospitals to assign patients a score that gives preference to healthier patients who have … Continue reading Ventilators? From the Globe and STAT
Monday night, rescheduled from earlier in March: #ConjoinedTwins: At the Crossroads of #Surgery, Medicine and Ethics.”
In order to separate these two babies, who were joined at the chest, one had to die. The doctors told their story to a group of health writers last year. One detail stood out: when the babies were rolled into the operating room, each one was holding a rattle. Free, but registration required.
ICYMI: The #Boston Globe series on race included a look at our #hospitals, where “the color line persists.”
Hospitals story, quoted below, here. Entire series here. Patients fly in from all over the country to get care at Massachusetts General Hospital. Yet, most black Bostonians don’t travel the five to 10 miles from their neighborhoods to take advantage of the hospital’s immense medical resources. Just 11 percent of Bostonians admitted to the city’s largest … Continue reading ICYMI: The #Boston Globe series on race included a look at our #hospitals, where “the color line persists.”
Massachusetts Department of Public Health reports that flu cases are going down. But, they warn that the flu is “unpredictable.”
This following an early spike. The latest weekly flu report shows that rates of flu-like illness have dropped in the past seven days. However, flu is unpredictable and it’s too soon to know whether we’ve seen its peak this season. The one thing we know for sure is that it’s not too late to get a flu … Continue reading Massachusetts Department of Public Health reports that flu cases are going down. But, they warn that the flu is “unpredictable.”
Boston researcher in NYTimes on why the US spends so much on health care. The answer is same as it was in 2003 — prices.
Austin Frakt, director of the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center at the V.A. Boston Healthcare System writes in The New York Times today: A large part of the answer can be found in the title of a 2003 paper in Health Affairs by the Princeton University health economist Uwe Reinhardt: “It’s the prices, stupid.” He … Continue reading Boston researcher in NYTimes on why the US spends so much on health care. The answer is same as it was in 2003 — prices.
Tuesday, Globe series targets racial disparities in health care. Conclusion: The color line exists in sickness as in health.
The Boston Globe's series on race focuses on health disparities on Tuesday. Though the issue gets scant attention in this center of world-class medicine, segregation patterns are deeply imbedded in Boston health care. Simply put: If you are black in Boston, you are less likely to get care at several of the city’s elite hospitals … Continue reading Tuesday, Globe series targets racial disparities in health care. Conclusion: The color line exists in sickness as in health.
Two babies, two rattles, one heart. The complicated decision to separate conjoined twins when only one will survive
Oscar J. Benavidez, MD, the MGH pediatric cardiologist involved in a difficult separation of conjoined twin girls, remembers a painful moment on the day of surgery. When the joined babies were rolled into the OR, each was holding a rattle. He and the others knew: only one of them would leave the operating room alive. … Continue reading Two babies, two rattles, one heart. The complicated decision to separate conjoined twins when only one will survive
Can hospitals be leaner?@STATnews take you insides the Brigham’s “struggle to cut costs.”
More here. Over the past three months, the Brigham provided STAT un usual access to meetings of its top management and internal deliberations and documents. This inside look shows how one of the nation’s leading hospitals is confronting the daunting financial and marketplace forces buffeting academic medical centers across the U.S. “This wasn’t about ordinary … Continue reading Can hospitals be leaner?@STATnews take you insides the Brigham’s “struggle to cut costs.”
Boston Health News 