Reputation Plays a Vital Role in Influencing a Patient’s Choice of Hospital

From JD Power:
Patient perceptions of a hospital’s reputation play an important role in hospital selection, according to the J.D. Power Associates 2005 National Hospital Service Performance StudySM. The study, which was based on responses from 2,500 patients who stayed in a hospital for at least one night within the previous three to nine months of [...]

Contract Negotiations in Olympia

From The Olympian (WA):
About 21,000 state employees and dependents in Thurston County will be warned by mail today that their Uniform Medical Plan insurance won’t cover as much of the cost as it previously did for an emergency room visit at Providence St. Peter Hospital.
At issue is a breakdown in contract talks between the [...]

Patient’s impatience lands her in rubble

From the Philadelphia Daily News:
A Florida woman sought treatment at a New Jersey hospital’s emergency room over the weekend but apparently didn’t like the service.
Police said she didn’t wait long enough and didn’t wait properly.
But the woman apparently had a second opinion, because she abruptly left the hospital’s emergency room, got into her Buick sport [...]

A.M.A. to Develop Measure of Quality of Medical Care

From the New York Times:
The American Medical Association has signed a pact with Congress promising to develop more than 100 standard measures of performance, which doctors will report to the federal government in an effort to improve the quality of care.
The deal comes as the Bush administration pushes “pay for performance” arrangements with various [...]

WA: Compromise emerges on medical-malpractice rules

From The Olympian:
Washington’s medical-­malpractice insurance war appears to be over — for now.
Gov. Chris Gregoire stood beside members of the state’s medical, legal and malpractice insurance establishments Monday to declare a breakthrough agreement in the state’s four-year battle over medical malpractice insurance and its cost to doctors.
The compromise announced Monday includes protections for doctors so [...]

Cell Phone Bans in Hospitals – Invalid?

From USA Today:
According to an informal survey cited by the American Society for health care Engineering, about one-quarter of all hospitals ban cellphones entirely, half ban them from patient care areas, and the remaining quarter have no ban.
The bans go back to early reports from the 1980s that turning on a cellphone could turn off [...]

Injuries spike amid Dutch dart craze

From CNN.com
A wave of international victories for Dutch darts players has prompted an increase in the number of injuries as people take up the game at home, according to the Dutch consumer safety association.
Over-eagerness caused most of the injuries, said a spokeswoman for the group, with players hurling their darts before opponents had finished retrieving [...]

California execution delayed as doctors walk out

From CNN.com
The execution of a convicted killer was postponed early Tuesday after two anesthesiologists refused for ethical reasons to take part, renewing the long-running debate over what role doctors may play in the death chamber.
Michael Morales, 46, was supposed to die by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. But the execution was put off until at [...]

Trauma Centre – Under the Knife

From the Irish Developer Network:
A steady hand will be required as life and death decisions are laced firmly in your palm when Trauma Centre: Under The Knife launches on the Nintendo DS across Europe on 28th April 2006.
Become the next emergency room super-star as you take on the role of rookie doctor Derek Stiles in [...]

Bruce Willis Appreciates Emergency Workers

From Star Pulse (emphasis added):
Bruce Willis is championing a new initiative to provide emergency workers with better pay, and he believes starring as policemen adds weight to their campaign. The star jumps at the chance to plays cops in action films because he wants Americans to realize the harsh realitites of their everyday life.
He says, [...]