NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The “safety culture” of a hospital may be just as important in delivering high-quality surgical patient care as more technical issues like surgeon skill and operating room equipment, according to a new study. “The study supports what many surgeons have known for a long time, and that is that the organizational culture…
Five Charged in $600 million California Healthcare Fraud Scheme
LOS ANGELES (Reuters)—The former chief financial officer of a California hospital and four other people have been charged in a series of health care kickback schemes that generated nearly $600 million in fraudulent billings for spinal surgeries, prosecutors said on Tuesday. All five defendants have agreed to cooperate in a wide-ranging federal investigation into the…
Hospital-Owned Physician Practices Linked to Higher Prices
(Reuters Health)—Outpatient care may cost more when hospitals own the medical practices or employ the physicians, a U.S. study suggests. Hospital employment of doctors and ownership of physician practices has grown over the past decade as healthcare providers seek to curb expenses with economies of scale and deliver better coordinated treatment to patients. Research reported…
Hospital Workers Often Transfer Germs When Removing Gloves, Gowns
(Reuters Health)—Fluorescent lotion and black light revealed that healthcare workers often contaminate their skin and clothing while removing their protective gear, researchers say. This contamination can spread germs and place the healthcare workers at risk for infection, the authors write in JAMA Internal Medicine. “It was surprising for the participants in the study to see…
How Hospitals Rank in Treating Childhood-Onset SLE
A recent study of how medical facilities in three countries meet minimum care standards for patients with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus found a wide variation in quality of care…
Poverty May Increase Odds of Repeat Hospitalizations
(Reuters Health)—When patients are hospitalized more than once in the same month, it may have more to do with their income or education levels than the quality of care they received, a U.S. study suggests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, patients 85 and older are more likely to return to the hospital within 30 days of being sent…
Hamstrung by Red Tape, Hospital Operators Buy Their Way into India
NEW DELHI (Reuters)—For nearly two years, Parkway Pantai has delayed the opening of its 450-bed India hospital, the Singapore-based medical firm’s bid to cash in on one of Asia’s fastest growing private healthcare markets, as it waited for the necessary permits. Parkway, a unit of the world’s second largest healthcare group by market value IHH…
Governments Are Not Following Advice on MERS
GENEVA (Reuters)—Governments are not doing all they should to tackle the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a committee of health experts at the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The WHO’s emergency committee, which meets regularly to consider the international response to the disease, said in a statement that its advice had not been completely…
U.S. Hospitals Urge DOJ Antitrust Probe of Anthem-Cigna Deal
NEW YORK (Reuters)—U.S. hospitals urged antitrust regulators this week to consider whether health insurer Anthem Inc’s planned acquisition of rival Cigna Corp would boost healthcare costs. In a letter to the Department of Justice, the hospital industry’s largest lobbying group said combining the No. 1 and No. 5 health insurers threatens to reduce competition in…
Medicare Rule May Needlessly Extend Some Hospital Stays
(Reuters Health)—A decades old Medicare rule requiring a three-day hospital stay before patients can transfer to skilled nursing facilities may needlessly prolong hospitalizations, a study suggests. Researchers compared the average time patients were hospitalized between 2006 and 2010 in privately administered Medicare Advantage health plans that either stuck to this rule or allowed people to…