How following hospital quality measures can kill patients

Provactive title, eh?
From Kevin MD’s comments on WhiteCoat’s post:
Here’s what happens when you give so much attention and influence to such a crude instrument.
Following quality measures can make or break a hospital’s reputation, especially if they are being widely advertised. Patients often make health care choices based on whether doctors following quality measures.
However, as these [...]

Why Hotels Resist Having Defibrillators

From the Wall Street Journal:
If your heart stops suddenly, you may not want to be at a hotel.
Automated external defibrillators — laptop-sized devices that can automatically restart a heart after sudden cardiac arrest — are now required equipment on commercial airliners and have saved lives at airports, casinos, health clubs and many public buildings. But [...]

Stimulus law will improve Minnesota’s ability to obtain additional Medicaid matching funds

From the Minnesota Hospital Association:
Key provisions of the federal stimulus bill that President Obama signed into law last Tuesday will mean a temporary increase in Minnesota’s federal Medicaid match.
Under the $86.6 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, all states will receive a temporary 6.2 percent increase via the federal Medicaid assistance percentage (FMAP) increase. Two-thirds [...]

Safety Net Clinics

From Kevin MD:
Patients on Medicare and Medicaid tend to utilize the health care system more frequently.
Combined with the fact that an increasing number of physicians are closing their doors to such patients, the so-called “safety net” clinics and hospitals are finding themselves with much more work than they can handle.
In this case in California, one [...]

White House 2010 budget outline includes hospital provisions

From the American Hospital Association:
President Obama today submitted to Congress a fiscal year 2010 budget outline that would create a reserve fund of more than $630 billion over 10 years to help pay for health care reform. Half of the reserve fund would come from savings in health care programs, including proposals to bundle Medicare [...]

Bill aims to enhance access to emergency care

From Modern Healthcare:
A bipartisan group of House and Senate members have reintroduced legislation to help improve access to emergency medical services.
The “Access to Emergency Medical Services Act” calls for the creation of a national bipartisan commission on access to emergency medical services to examine factors that affect the delivery of care in emergency departments. In [...]

Obama Budget Boosts Loan Repayments for Docs and Nurses

From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog:
President Obama’s budget blueprint outlines more on his ideas for health care, including cancer research and addressing the nursing shortage. Below are some more highlights to add on to what we offered this morning.
Doctor and Nurse Shortages: Shortages of nurses and the dwindling ranks of primary-care physicians are among [...]

Multiple ED Visits for Kids May Signal Neglect

From MedPage Today:
Kids with two or more injury-related medical visits within a year were more likely to have been reported for child maltreatment and have substantiated reports than those with only one visit, Patricia G. Schnitzer, Ph.D., of the University of Missouri, and colleagues reported online in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Neglect — including inadequate [...]

ACEP AEMSA Bill Introduced in Congress

From the EDPMA:
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has worked to re-introduce the Access to Emergency Medical Services Act (AEMSA) in the current Congress.  In the Senate, the legislation was introduced by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).  In the House the legislation was introduced by Reps. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) and Pete [...]

Officials: Budget to include $634 billion health-care ‘reserve fund’

From CNN:
A senior administration official told CNN Wednesday that the proposed budget to be released Thursday will include a $634 billion health-care “reserve fund,” which is intended to help pay to overhaul the nation’s health-care system over 10 years.
President Obama is expected to unveil his fiscal year 2010 budget on Thursday.
One of the officials said [...]