The great sucking sound: For-profit buyouts a drain on communities

Few have spent more time than I calling out non-profit hospitals on their inadequate charity care levels.  But when it comes down to it, I’d prefer a non-profit whose chain can be yanked over a for-profit with no public service requirements … Continue reading →

Posted on: 14 December 2010 | 9:26 am

Bigger, better, faster hospitals are a great idea

The other day, I read a tweet from the estimable Matthew Holt in which he summarized what hospitals have been telling him.  In short, they seem to want bigger, badder, newer facilities.  In fact, if I recall correctly, they feel they’re … Continue reading →

Posted on: 13 December 2010 | 1:43 am

The death of the old healthcare magazine? A public challenge

With all due respect to the talented people who work (and have worked) at Modern Healthcare magazine, I’m here to kick it in the butt, not praise it. Now, I have to admit that there’s a reason nobody’s put MH … Continue reading →

Posted on: 7 December 2010 | 8:22 pm

Would you feel safe in this ugly lobby?

Folks, I’ll never forget that night.  Led gently by my worried husband, who was a bit concerned about my ability to keep breathing, I walked into the lobby of a mid-sized, plain-vanilla 100-odd bed community hospital in my neighborhood. I … Continue reading →

Posted on: 21 November 2010 | 3:26 pm

So many blank spots on the clinical data map!

EMTs collect a lot of data on their trip to the emergency department — and usually, data treating ED physicians will want pretty badly when they see the patient. But in virtually every case, most of that critical info transfer … Continue reading →

Posted on: 20 November 2010 | 9:22 pm

Meaningful Use: What is it good for? A lot of smoke and mirrors

Meaningful Use?  Whoa! Good God y’all! What is it good for?  Very, very little. Sing it again… OK, maybe it’s the greatest idea in the history of health IT, or maybe it’s a good idea gone terribly, terribly wrong (my theory), but it … Continue reading →

Posted on: 18 November 2010 | 9:44 pm

Did hospital “kidnap” patient who wanted to leave?

    OK folks, I don’t know any more about the following story than you do, but if true, it’s an absolutely insane breakdown in hospital systems — one, I’d argue, that might not have happened in a hospital which had … Continue reading →

Posted on: 1 September 2010 | 8:50 pm

Hospitals: Can you afford to ban big drug company payouts?

This week, a very interesting (and important) question courtesy of the indefatigable KevinMD.com:  Can hospitals afford to shut down the lucrative relationships doctors have with pharmas?  To quote his blog: “A recent case at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital [has] raised … Continue reading →

Posted on: 31 August 2010 | 9:11 pm

NYC’s shame: Psychiatric nightmare continues

Don't take my word for it: read this well-researched piece from the New York Daily News and tell me why there's a single senior manager still in place at HHC, much less King's County. Continue reading →

Posted on: 22 August 2010 | 6:55 pm

Data from the Kaiser rollout – better than expected?

A few years ago, Kaiser caught a lot of heat for what was reputed to be a $3 billion EMR installation. Today, after four more years, Kaiser's EMR rollout is old news. But even though it hit full stride in 2006 or so, it was such big news that the echoes still remain. So here you have what may be some data from those tumultuous times. Continue reading →

Posted on: 20 August 2010 | 9:28 pm