Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
About Those Nurses ... National Union Critical Of UC Health Response To Concerns About Patient Safety
Cincinnati Enquirer: UC Health Not Dealing Fairly With Nurses, National Union Leader Says
The president of the national union for nurses at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center says the hospital system is being “so stupid and so tone deaf” in dealing with its nurses and their concerns about patient safety.“ There are some people in this management here who are being very Trumpian in trying to bully and silence and tell lies about who these nurses are,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. (Saker, 9/28)
Boston Globe: Outside The Operating Room, This Nurse Is There To Help Anxious Families
Delaney’s updates, every 90 minutes, might seem like the oldest, simplest kind of medical care — but they were the product of a gradual shift, an innovation that swept from hospital to hospital alongside midcentury advances in surgery that meant procedures ran longer. Children’s started its surgical liaison program in 1963, well before such positions became ubiquitous. Even as the role spread in the 1970s, more hands-on nurses viewed them with a combination of jealousy and disdain. (Boodman, 9/27)
The Star Tribune: Minnesota's School Nurses Now Are Facing A Growing Workload
In many cases, the nurses are stretched so thin that some of those complicated responsibilities are handed off to staff members with little or no medical training. Meanwhile, preliminary research from the Minnesota Department of Health, which is surveying school districts about their health care staffing, found that more than a quarter of Minnesota school districts have no nurses at all. (Golden, 9/29)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: ‘A Second Pair Of Eyes:’ How Patient Advocates, Hospital Ombudsmen Help Navigate Health-Care Maze
The 77-year-old business owner experienced multiple complications from the transplant, and UH wouldn’t discharge him unless he could get daily infusions for hydration while at home.Gecsi turned to Julie Wenzinger, owner of the Sandusky-based Advocacy Healthcare Concepts and a board-certified patient advocate, for help. Gecsi credits Wenzinger as one of the people who saved his life.Wenzinger, who also is a registered nurse, is part of a growing profession that helps guide patients and their families through the health care maze. (Washington, 9/29)
Boston Globe: One Woman’s Quest To Improve Care For Premature Babies
Modern medicine can now keep alive children born after just 23 or 24 weeks in the womb. In babies that young, their developing brains will be compromised, which can lead to developmental disabilities and long-term physical and mental health problems. ...Als showed that such care also leads to noticeably different brain structures and measurably improved brain function: By the time they are 8, babies who received kangaroo care can concentrate, organize their thoughts, remember more, and function better than those who didn’t. (Weintraub, 9/27)
MPR: Home Births Are On The Rise, But Some Midwives Aren’t Licensed
Alvar is part of a wave of women in Minnesota choosing home births over hospitals. It’s a shift that’s brought new demand for midwives and fresh questions about why Minnesota — a state that requires a license for pretty much any business — lets midwives practice unregulated. (Richert, 9/30)
San Francisco Chronicle: Insight: The Future Of California Health Care Relies On Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Immigrants, already essential to California health care, will become even more important to its future. Today, 1 in 6 medical professionals, and nearly one-third of physicians, are foreign-born, and many are bringing not just their labor but their ideas. Immigrants are responsible for one-fifth of all biomedical research and clinical trials. (Mathews, 9/29)
Dallas Morning News: Texas Doctors Ordered Unneeded Cancer Screening Tests For Kickbacks, Feds Say In Nationwide Bust
Three Texas doctors have been charged in Dallas with ordering expensive and medically unnecessary cancer screening tests as part of a nationwide crackdown on fraudulent genetic testing schemes, federal court records show. The Justice Department on Friday announced a coordinated operation targeting "fraudulent genetic cancer testing" that produced charges against 35 people in several states including Florida and Georgia. A total of $2.1 billion was billed to Medicare for the bogus DNA tests, Justice officials said. (Krause, 9/27)
