Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
“Though the views were spectacular, the cardiac arrest team could not get there as quickly as it could to the regular wards.”
The New York Times article asked the questions “What is going on here? Is This a Hospital or a Hotel?”
“The Henry Ford health system in Michigan caused a stir after it hired a hotel industry executive, Gerard van Grinsven of the Ritz-Carlton Group, in 2006 to run its new hospital, Henry Ford West Bloomfield. There are some medical arguments for the trend — private rooms, for example, could lower infection rates and allow patients more rest as they heal. But the main reason for the largess is marketing.”
(more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
The New York Times article reported that quote from former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“Former Vice President Dick Cheney was so close to death in 2010 that he said farewell to his family members and instructed them to have his body cremated and the ashes returned to Wyoming, he writes in a new book on his long battle with heart disease.”
“Mr. Cheney ultimately survived the emergency surgery that night and went on to have a heart transplant at age 71 that has left him re-energized five years after leaving office. But for the first time, he describes a 35-year medical struggle that he kept generally private in vivid personal detail.”
(more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
The Newsday investigation: “Three Long Island doctors selected to lead a committee that recommends the drugs two Suffolk hospitals stock for patients accepted tens of thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical companies while serving on the advisory panel.”
“The doctors — affiliated with John T. Mather Memorial and St. Charles hospitals in Port Jefferson — accepted about $125,000 from drugmakers between 2009 and 2013, company records show.” They… ” received most of the payments for speeches promoting the companies’ drugs…”
(more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
Do drug company reps influence doctor prescribing practices?
A NPR article noted “Dermatologists who accept free tubes and bottles of brand-name drugs are likelier to prescribe expensive medications for acne than doctors who are prohibited from taking samples, a study reports…”
“The difference isn’t chump change. When patients see a dermatologist who gets and gives free samples, the average cost of medicines prescribed is $465 per office visit. That cost drops to about $200 when patients see a doctor who can’t hand out freebies, a team at Stanford University found.”
(more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
“Every year between 210,000 and 440,000 Americans die as a result of medical errors and other preventable harm at hospitals, according to researchers.”
These numbers are equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every day with no survivors. Based on these figures, medical errors could be considered the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease (more than 590,000 a year) and cancer (more than 570,000 a year).
(more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
It is always a good idea to talk to your primary care practitioner, the clinician who knows you best, about procedures suggested consulting physicians.
A Kaiser Health News article noted: “The medical profession has historically been reluctant to condemn unwarranted but often lucrative tests and treatments that can rack up costs to patients but not improve their health and can sometimes hurt them. But in 2012, medical specialty societies began publishing lists of at least five services that both doctors and patients should consider skeptically. So far, 54 specialty societies have each offered recommendations and distributed them to more than a half-million doctors.”
(more…)
“Though the views were spectacular, the cardiac arrest team could not get there as quickly as it could to the regular wards.”
