hospitals

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ER Waiting Times Tripled Since 1997
ER Waiting Times Tripled Since 1997
Jan 16, 2008 4:51 PM CST

ER Waiting Times Tripled Since 1997

Average waits for heart attack patients rose from 8 to 20 minutes

(Newser) - With emergency room visits and hospital overcrowding on the rise, waiting times have grown dangerously long—36% longer than they were in 1997. A new study in medical journal Health Affairs cites especially troubling waits for heart attack victims, with 25% waiting at least 50 minutes to see a doctor...

Sarko Secretly Hospitalized After Divorce

French prez rushed to military clinic a day after Le Split, says new book

(Newser) - In the latest Sarko plotline, a new book reveals that the French president was hospitalized the day after announcing his divorce from wife Cécilia—and that sick and depressed, he called her from the hospital and she rushed to his bedside. The Daily Mail reports that Nicolas Sarkozy was...

Outbreak Has UK Wards Closing Doors

Vomit-inducing norovirus strikes with a vengeance

(Newser) - Dozens of hospital wards across the UK have shut their doors in an effort to stop the spread of a vomiting virus that has already infected more than 2 million nationwide. With 100,000 new patients per week, many already-overflowing hospitals have been forced to cancel non-emergency operations and focus...

Study: Hospitals Too Slow to Shock Hearts

30% of cardiac arrests receiving care too late

(Newser) - American hospitals are taking too long to revive the hearts of patients who suffer cardiac arrest, a study finds. Electric shock from a defibrillator can restart a stopped heart, but only if it is done quickly. The American Heart Association recommends that patients in cardiac arrest receive treatment within two...

New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind
New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind
Jan 2, 2008 2:12 PM CST

New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind

Chips, bar codes keep surgeons from leaving sponges in patients

(Newser) - Hospitals are turning to technology to cut down on incidents of doctors sewing up surgical patients with sponges and other items left inside, the Chicago Tribune reports. A bar-coding system to ensure what goes in comes back out is one solution; another involves tagging items with chips that allow them...

Hospitals Seduced by 'Nuclear Arms Race' vs. Cancer

But does prestigious strategy help patients?

(Newser) - More and more hospitals are using nuclear proton accelerators in the fight against cancer, with mixed results, reports the New York Times. Some experts say the massive devices, formerly only found in physics labs, are a vital next-generation tool. Others doubt their effectiveness and worry that hospitals are getting caught...

Hospital-Bred Bacteria Kills Brits
Hospital-Bred Bacteria Kills Brits
Nov 18, 2007 4:34 PM CST

Hospital-Bred Bacteria Kills Brits

Pseudomona are resistant to cleaning products and antibiotics

(Newser) - An untreatable strand of hospital-bred bacteria is killing hundreds of patients each year in the UK, the Observer reports. Pseudomona cases have risen 41% over the past five years, reaching 3,663 in 2006. Like MRSA, the bug is resistant to traditional cleaning agents and antibiotics, and contaminates patients through...

Staph Strain Explodes Immune Cells
Staph Strain Explodes Immune Cells
Nov 12, 2007 4:30 AM CST

Staph Strain Explodes Immune Cells

Part of puzzle explains infection's deadly punch

(Newser) - A key reason why a powerful strain of drug-resistant staph infections known as MRSA has proven so deadly is because it produces a compound that causes immune cells to explode, a new study in Nature concludes. The finding helps explain why MRSA, usually found in hospitals in patients with weakened...

Vodka Was the Best Medicine
Vodka Was the Best Medicine
Oct 11, 2007 5:32 AM CDT

Vodka Was the Best Medicine

Aussie docs save tourist's life with alcohol drip

(Newser) - Doctors have long recommended a glass of red wine for a healthy heart; but vodka apparently can also do a body good. After running out of medicinal alcohol, doctors in an Australian hospital set up a vodka drip as an antidote to save the life of a poisoned Italian tourist,...

Health Experts Don't Cotton to Dirty Lab Coats

Traditional MD garb now banned in Britain for spreading infection

(Newser) - British doctors have been ordered to ditch their traditional lab coats because the National Health Service has determined that they're unwittingly spreading the superbug MRSA and other deadly hospital-acquired infections from patient to patient on the coats' cuffs. Doctors will now have to work with bare forearms and are banned...

Hospitals Make Progress Against Infections

Cheap measures help caregivers prevent thousands of deaths

(Newser) - Infections picked up in hospitals kill nearly 100,000 people in the US every year and are on the rise, but some institutions seem to have found a remedy: simple hygiene. The Times visits the VA hospital in Pittsburgh, which has slashed the rate of virulent bacterial infections by using...

Nurses, Prosecutors Joust Over Post-Katrina Testimony

Caregivers accused in deaths of elderly patients

(Newser) - The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina continues to unfold in the courts, where prosecutors have offered to drop second-degree murder charges against two nurses in exchange for their testimony about the deaths of four patients. The motions may be a sign that the case against the nurses is weak, the Times-Picayune ...

Abortion Ship To Sail Again
Abortion Ship
To Sail Again
Apr 25, 2007 3:52 PM CDT

Abortion Ship To Sail Again

Dutch vessel offers offshore procedures in countries where abortion is illegal

(Newser) - The "abortion ship" is returning to international waters after a three-year hiatus, offering early-term procedures to women whose countries ban them. The Dutch nonprofit Women on Waves will distribute abortion pills to women up to seven weeks pregnant on the ship, which was prevented from docking in Lisbon in...

Local TV Pushes Fake Medical News
Local TV Pushes Fake Medical News
Apr 25, 2007 8:51 AM CDT

Local TV Pushes Fake Medical News

Hospital-produced promos are passed off as news reports by local stations

(Newser) - TV stations across America broadcast fake medical news stories that are really ads produced by providers to tout their new techniques and procedures, according to an investigation by the Columbia Journalism Review. “I kick, scream, and fight, and make them as journalistically ethical as possible," says one reporter....

Detox is Second (or Only) Home for These Addicts

Repeat patients who use it as refuge are costing New York millions

(Newser) - Drug addicts who check into New York hospital detox units dozens of times per year cost the state more than $300 million annually. These frequent fliers are often homeless or mentally ill people who see detox as a source of food and housing. People use it instead of the shelter...

Docs Accused Of Hurrying Death To Harvest Organs

"They were waiting like vultures," the patient's sister said

(Newser) - A 47-year-old man was wrongly declared brain dead by two doctors apparently eager to harvest his organs, reports the LA Times. "They were waiting like vultures, so they could scoop them up," says the patient’s daughter, Melanie Sanchez. A third doctor determined that her father, who had...

Hospitals Dial 911
Hospitals
Dial 911
Apr 2, 2007 2:57 PM CDT

Hospitals Dial 911

Small, specialized facilities unprepared for emergencies

(Newser) - Believe it or not, some small, physician-owned hospitals are calling in paramedics to revive their patients in emergencies. Already accused of cherry picking patients and focusing on profit-maximizing procedures, the facilities are now drawing fire for literally relying on other hospitals to rescue patients when complications arise, reports Reed Abelson...

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