Latest KFF Health News Stories
Licensing Logjam For California Nurses
A big backlog of applications at the state’s licensing board is holding up hiring by hospitals and making it difficult for recent nurse graduates — and experienced nurses from out of state — to work.
Medical Providers Try Uber, Lyft For Patients With Few Transportation Options
Some hospitals and other medical providers are experimenting with ride-hailing services to help patients without access to cars get to their appointments.
Elderly Patients In The Hospital Need To Keep Moving
Spending too much time in their hospital beds can leave older patients sicker than when they were first admitted.
Elderly Hospital Patients Arrive Sick, Often Leave Disabled
Some hospitals try to avoid sharp declines in the health of elderly patients by treating them in special units geared to their specific needs. This story is the first in a KHN series on the challenges hospitals face with an aging population.
1965: The Year That Brought Civil Rights To The Nation’s Hospitals
A conversation with author David Barton Smith examines how civil rights activists working at the Social Security Administration and the Public Health Service in the 1960s used the new Medicare law to end racial discrimination at hospitals.
California Doctors And Hospitals Tussle Over Role Of Nurse-Midwives
Legislation that would allow nurse-midwives to practice independently is mired in a dispute about whether hospitals should be allowed to hire them.
Medicare’s Readmission Penalties Hit New High
Medicare will withhold an estimated $528 million in 2017 from more than 2,500 hospitals that have too many patients returning within 30 days.
Study Bodes Well For Biosimilars But Highlights Need For More Research
Some experts said the findings stemming from this systematic review of existing studies was reassuring, but not surprising.
Web Tool Reduced Medical Missteps During Hospital-Shift Changes: Study
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston concluded that a web-based tool focused on these critical points of the day helped cut the rate of medical errors in half.
University Of California OKs $8.5 Million Payout In Spine Surgery Cases
Two Los Angeles area patients alleged a prominent UCLA spine surgeon harmed them by using Medtronic devices in experimental ways without their consent and failing to disclose his financial ties to the company. Both UCLA and Medtronic deny wrongdoing.
Opioid Dependence Leads To ‘Tsunami’ Of Medical Services, Study Finds
Insurance claims for medical services related to opioid dependence diagnoses rose more than 3,000 percent between 2007 and 2014, an analysis finds.
Study: 30 Percent Of Children’s Readmissions To Hospitals May Be Preventable
In more than three-quarters of the cases that researchers said might have been preventable, factors at the hospital contributed to the child’s return, according to the researchers.
Children Exposed To Hepatitis C May Be Missing Out On Treatment
Hepatitis C can be passed from mothers to babies, but it often is not diagnosed until much later in a person’s life. Specialists are debating new screening practices to catch the disease earlier.
Many Well-Known Hospitals Fail To Score 5 Stars In Medicare’s New Ratings
Of the 102 hospitals that received a five-star rating, few are among the elite generally praised for great care.
Congressman Decries Olympus’ Failure To Warn U.S. Hospitals About Tainted Scopes
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) renews his call for tightened laws that would force manufacturers to notify the Food and Drug Administration when they issue safety warnings in other countries related to the design and cleaning of their devices.
Warning: Government Listing Of Clinical Trials Doesn’t Disclose Costs To Patients
Some clinics on NIH’s website charge people to participate in testing of unproven treatments — and it can come as a surprise to unsuspecting patients.
Surgeon Says Apps May Turn Organ Donation Support Into ‘Concrete Action’
Dr. Thomas Fishbein of the Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute is optimistic that efforts by hospitals like his, advocacy groups and app makers, such as Tinder, will increase the number of organ donors.
Olympus Told U.S. Executives No Broad Scope Warning Needed Despite Superbug Outbreaks
Newly released court documents show that after Tokyo-based Olympus Corp. alerted customers in Europe in 2013, it told its U.S. operation not to warn U.S. doctors and hospitals. Since then, at least 35 patients have died after being sickened in outbreaks.
Medicare Prepares To Go Forward With New Hospital Quality Ratings
The government will soon give hospitals one to five stars to sum up their quality. Some safety hospitals and teaching hospitals won’t fare as well as other facilities.
For Surgeons, Talking About Adverse Events Can Be Difficult: Study
Research suggests surgeons might be better off if they learn to quickly and directly explain what went wrong to the patient.
