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MEDICAL PRACTICE

Hospital’s water purification system stripped out chlorine, killing 3 patients

ARS TECHNICA – Water purification systems installed in two ice machines in a Boston hospital were supposed to make the water taste and smell better for patients on a surgery floor—but it ended up killing three of them, an investigation found. The purification systems inadvertently stripped chlorine from the municipal tap water, allowing bacteria normally found at low levels to flourish and form biofilms inside the machines. This led to infections in four vulnerable cardiac-surgery patients...

Want to email your doctor? You may be charged for that

WASHINGTON (AP) — The next time you message your doctor to ask about a pesky cough or an itchy rash, you may want to check your bank account first — you could get a bill for the question. Hospital systems around the country are rolling out fees for some messages that patients send to physicians, who they say are spending an increasing amount of time poring over online queries, some so complex that they require...

These Doctors Admit They Don’t Want Patients With Disabilities

Lisa Iezzoni, a professor of medicine at Harvard, wanted to understand why people with disabilities kept reporting receiving substandard care. “I thought I needed to start talking to doctors,” she said.

The Death Dilemma: Are Hospitals Overtreating Patients Nearing the End?

THE WALRUS (CANADA) – I CAN’T RECALL a time as a paramedic when I pronounced someone dead without complete confidence. Back then, it was a relatively easy decision to make. The Ministry of Health in Ontario, where I served on ambulances and helicopters for a decade, had a list of things that qualified someone as being “obviously dead.” It’s the type of list paramedic trainees have to recite for exams, and I knew it colloquially as...

Hospital Rules Inflate Costs, Provide Little Benefit

Northwestern University – If health care facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes don't follow patient safety rules set by The Joint Commission (TJC)—the independent organization responsible for accrediting health care facilities—they may lose their accreditation, and consequently, lose patients and millions of dollars every year in funding. But what if those rules aren't supported by evidence? A new Northwestern Medicine study found of the new rules issued during a one-year period by the TJC, many...

Her First Colonoscopy Cost Her $0. Her Second Cost $2,185. Why?

The Affordable Care Act was supposed to make preventive health care such as mammograms and colonoscopies free of charge to patients without cost sharing ...  KAISER HEALTH NEWS – Elizabeth Melville and her husband are gradually hiking all 48 mountain peaks that top 4,000 feet in New Hampshire. “I want to do everything I can to stay healthy so that I can be skiing and hiking into my 80s — hopefully even 90s!” said the 59-year-old...

Hospitals push for higher prices while hiding real rates from consumers

Views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill.  THE HILL – American hospitals are reportedly looking to increase their prices by up to 15 percent, in line with historical trends that have seen them raise rates by roughly double the prevailing inflation rate. Hospital prices are already outrageous, regularly throwing patients into bankruptcy and financial ruin. Significantly increasing hospitals’ prices and negotiated rates will further burden healthcare consumers — including patients,...

1 in 4 physicians experience workplace mistreatment

MEDICAL EXPRESS – According to new research from Boston Medical Center and Stanford University School of Medicine, almost a quarter of physicians who responded to a survey at Stanford Medicine experienced workplace mistreatment, with patients and visitors being the most common source. The research, published in JAMA Network Open, found mistreatment was common among all physicians, but there were disparities in mistreatment by gender and race. Women were twice more likely to report mistreatment than men....

Virus found in pig heart used in human transplant

AP – Researchers trying to learn what killed the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig have discovered the organ harbored an animal virus but cannot yet say if it played any role in the man’s death. A Maryland man, 57-year-old David Bennett Sr., died in March, two months after the groundbreaking experimental transplant. University of Maryland doctors said Thursday they found an unwelcome surprise — viral DNA inside the pig heart....

J&J Injected Black Prisoners With Asbestos

PLUS: Black Vaccine Hesitancy Rooted in Mistrust, Doubts CONTX – Court documents unsealed during the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) talcum powder litigation reveal that the company funded a 1971 study in which Pennsylvania prisoners, most of them African American, were “injected subcutaneously with asbestos.” Knowledge of the experiments has been public for some time, but J&J’s involvement has only just been recognised, according to Bloomberg. This news comes after unsealed documents were released in recent J&J lawsuits,...

What Is Medical Gaslighting?

INSIDER – Heidi Richard, a 47-year-old elementary school teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts, is a lifelong runner who'd always been healthy. So she knew something was wrong in spring 2019 when she started experiencing severe stomach pains, vomiting, and night sweats. At the doctor, though, she was told her symptoms were just stress or anxiety. She was given an antacid and sent on her way, she wrote for Today.com. Richard's pain and vomiting didn't subside, and she unintentionally...

China Harvested Organs From Living People, Israeli Researcher Claims

According to these experts, Chinese authorities murder some prisoners in “reeducation camps” to harvest their organs and sell them for transplant for high prices to local and foreign customers.

Patients’ Perilous Months-Long Waiting for Medicaid Coverage Is a Sign of What’s to Come

KAISER HEALTH NEWS – Korra Elliott has tried to avoid seeing a doctor while waiting to get on Medicaid. She worries she can’t afford more bills without any insurance coverage. But in early March — five months, she said, after applying and with still no decision about her application — a suspected case of the flu sent her blood pressure soaring and landed her in the emergency room. The 28-year-old mother of four from Salem, Missouri,...

They Left The Doctor’s Sicker Than When They Went In

A new study has found that patients exposed to the flu at their primary care physician’s office were 31.8% more likely than unexposed patients to revisit with the flu within two weeks.
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