MEDICAL PRACTICE

More Patients Are Losing Their Doctors — And Trust in the Primary Care System

KFF HEALTH NEWS – First, her favorite doctor in Providence, Rhode Island, retired. Then her other doctor at a health center a few miles away left the practice. Now, Piedad Fred has developed a new chronic condition: distrust in the American medical system. "I don’t know,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “To go to a doctor that doesn’t know who you are? That doesn’t know what allergies you have, the medicines that make you...

Professor discovers breakthrough in stroke patient’s head positioning

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The moments after a stroke are critical. Time is of the essence to get to a hospital and get care but a new clinical trial is also shedding light on what should be done in those moments leading up to removing a clot. The 2024 American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference in Phoenix, Arizona showcased the latest stroke and brain health science. Dr. Anne Alexandrov is a professor of nursing with a joint...

Alzheimer’s Accidentally Spread to Several Humans via Corpse Transplants

NEWSWEEK – Five people may have "caught" Alzheimer's after receiving growth hormone from human cadavers during childhood. Between 1959 and 1985, over 1,800 patients in the U.K. were treated with human growth hormone extracted from the pituitary glands of dead bodies. The hormone, which is synthetically produced today, was mostly administered to children to treat severe short stature, often caused by a deficiency of this hormone. In 1985, one of these patients died from a rare brain...

Abortion Bans Are Driving Off Doctors

KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION HEALTH NEWS – The rush in conservative states to ban abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states. Doctors are showing — through their words and actions — that they are reluctant to practice in places where making the best decision for a patient could result in huge...

He Returned to the US for His Daughter’s Wedding. He Left With a $42,000 Hospital Bill.

KFF Health News – Last June, Jay Comfort flew to the United States from his home in Switzerland to attend his only daughter’s wedding. But the week before the ceremony — on a Friday evening — Comfort said he found himself in “excruciating pain.” “I tried to gut it out for three hours because of the insurance situation,” said Comfort, a retired teacher and American citizen who has Swiss insurance. When the pain became unbearable, Comfort...

Salve Lucrum: The Existential Threat of Greed in US Health Care

JAMA – In the mosaic floor of the opulent atrium of a house excavated at Pompeii is a slogan ironic for being buried under 16 feet of volcanic ash: Salve Lucrum, it reads, “Hail, Profit.” That mosaic would be a fitting decoration today in many of health care’s atria. The grip of financial self-interest in US health care is becoming a stranglehold, with dangerous and pervasive consequences. No sector of US health care is immune from the...

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....

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