Year: 2012

Shorter hospital stays don’t mean worse care: study

Your Health Matters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals were able to reduce their patients’ length of stay without increasing the number of people who needed to be readmitted later on, according to a new study. “As hospitals became more efficient there was this growing concern that we were discharging patients – as some would say – sicker and quicker,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Peter Kaboli. “In fact, we found just the opposite,” said Kaboli, who works at the Iowa City VA Health Care System. …

,

French psychiatrist sentenced after patient commits murder

Your Health Matters

MARSEILLES, France (Reuters) – A French psychiatrist whose patient hacked an elderly man to death was found guilty of manslaughter on Tuesday in a groundbreaking case that could affect the way patients are treated. A court in Marseilles said Daniele Canarelli, 58, had committed a “grave error” by failing to recognize the public danger posed by Joel Gaillard, her patient of four years. …

States scramble to cover Medicaid costs, some face overruns

Your Health Matters

(Reuters) – Rising healthcare costs are pushing up the amounts states must spend on the Medicaid insurance program for the poor, sending some scrambling to find funds, according to a report released on Tuesday by the National Conference of State Legislatures. The report found that spending on Medicaid and other public healthcare programs is currently over budget in 10 states, compared to six states at the same point last year. In contrast, only five states report that education, which has traditionally taken up most spending, is over budget. …

Medicaid, other costs threaten New York state and local budgets: report

Your Health Matters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Costs for Medicaid, education and employee retirement benefits are threatening to overwhelm state and local government budgets in New York, a report by a national task force issued on Tuesday found. “Healthcare costs and retirement costs are rising a lot faster than revenue. And unless one sees something on the horizon that will change that essential dynamic, then that means we’re not on a sustainable path,” said former New York Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch in an interview. The report, which can be found at www.statebudgetcrisis. …

Wounded, starving crowd ill-equipped Damascus hospital

Your Health Matters

GENEVA (Reuters) – Wounded and starving Syrians, many of them women and children, are crowding into Damascus’s main hospital where medical supplies are increasingly short, World Health Organization (WHO) officials told a U.N. news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. As the civil war escalates around the capital, doctors are treating up to 100 injured a day at the 400-bed Damascus Hospital and have had to use local anesthetics even for complicated operations, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said. …

,

Amgen to pay $762 million, pleads guilty in marketing case

Your Health Matters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Amgen Inc pleaded guilty in a New York federal court on Tuesday for improper marketing practices involving its once top-selling Aranesp anemia drug, and prosecutors said the company has agreed to pay $762 million in a civil settlement and criminal fines. The world’s largest biotechnology company had set aside funds it expected to have to pay as a result of federal and state investigations, as well as nearly a dozen civil whistleblower lawsuits. …

1 … 22 23 24 25 26 … 1,299