Hospital News and Research

RSS

New Jersey Governor authorizes commission to study hospitals

New Jersey Gov. John Corzine (D) on Thursday signed an executive order creating a special 11-member commission that will study the state's 81 acute care hospitals and assess whether the facilities are necessary, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

17 Oct 2006

Hospitals reduce elderly mortality rate, though gap between best, worst hospitals in U.S. widened in 2005

Patients ages 65 and older last year were 69% less likely to die at hundreds of the best hospitals than hundreds of the worst, according to a study conducted by Colorado-based Health Grades, Bloomberg/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

17 Oct 2006

Chikungunya fever in India

From February 2006 to 10 October 2006, the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia has reported 151 districts in 8 states/provinces of India affected by chikungunya fever.

17 Oct 2006

Four more test positive for deadly flesh eating bug in NZ hospital

Four more cases of a deadly bug which has already killed three people since September 29 people, have been discovered in a New Zealand hospital.

17 Oct 2006

Check out hospital rating before checking in

According to the latest study, the gap between the best and worst performing hospitals in the United States has widened by as much as 5 percent since last year.

17 Oct 2006

Abuse of caffeine pills can land you in intensive care

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) says many young Americans are ending up in hospital because of an abuse of caffeine medications.

17 Oct 2006

Incidence of kidney damage associated with coronary artery bypass surgery has increased significantly

The incidence of kidney damage associated with coronary artery bypass surgery has increased significantly over the past 16 years in the United States, but the rate of death from such damage has decreased significantly during the period, according to a new analysis.

16 Oct 2006

New technique allows partial-match cell transplants for children with most resistant leukemia

Clinicians at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have successfully demonstrated an improved technique for blood stem cell transplantations in children that shows promise for those most likely to fail standard treatment for leukemia.

16 Oct 2006

New guidelines for nausea and vomiting

After five years of reviewing the latest research findings, a panel of experts led by a Duke University Medical Center anesthesiologist has developed new guidelines to help physicians reduce the occurrence of nausea and vomiting in patients after surgery.

16 Oct 2006

The influence of resource pressure on medical treatment decisions

Two studies in Florida show that pressure from hospitals and insurance companies to minimize health care costs can negatively affect the quality of care for some people.

16 Oct 2006

New techniques give hope to brain damaged victims

Scientists at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Atlanta have been demonstrating just how clever new techniques have become and what they are able to achieve.

16 Oct 2006

Many health care organizations have employee retention issues

Sixty-nine percent of health care organizations report having moderate to great trouble retaining employees with critical skills, compared with 43% of organizations across all industries, according to a report released last Wednesday by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, the AP/Arizona Republic reports.

16 Oct 2006

Outpatient surgery centers 'poised to outnumber' general hospitals

The AP/Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday examined how outpatient surgery centers are "poised to outnumber general hospitals, if they do not already."

16 Oct 2006

Few doctors have implemented, effectively use electronic health records

About one in four physicians use some type of electronic health records, while fewer than one in 10 use a comprehensive EHR system, according to a study that suggests "a technology frequently billed as a way to improve the quality and efficiency of care has yet to win widespread acceptance," the Washington Post reports.

16 Oct 2006

U.S. consumers' health care concerns

USA Today on Monday published three articles addressing U.S. consumers' health care concerns as part of a week-long series titled "Prescription for Change," which examines possible improvements to the U.S. health care system.

16 Oct 2006

Cocaine addicts have an altered perception of reward

People addicted to cocaine have an impaired ability to perceive rewards and exercise control due to disruptions in the brain's reward and control circuits, according to a series of brain-mapping studies and neuropsychological tests conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory.

16 Oct 2006