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A good article by Massachusetts Commonwealth magazine on why you can not follow your physician. It explains the monopolistic hospital actions using the patient notification letter which the physician is not allowed to amend which usually does not tell the patient that the physician has chosen to affiliate with another organization. It just explains the patient will be reassigned to anew physician within the organization. The physician is not allowed to extract any information about the patient from the computer system and therefore can not send notification letters to the patient. This is deemed as solicitation and is taboo. The old practice location will usually not be forthcoming about the new practice location if the patient calls the office. The patient must also get their on copy of the chart to forward it it the old physician as the chart will not automatically follow the physician.
Florida has a law passed 15 years ago that requires physicians that have lost three med mal claims to have their license removed. However almost no one ever loses their license since the law does not cover settlements.
Baltimore has had its information held for ransom via an attack. They were using software that was known to be vulnerable to hacking. There was a patch for the software problem but the city did not use it and now are going after the maker of the software and the supplier. Top
In a scathing expose of the terrible situation at the University of North Carolina medical center in Chapel Hill cardiac surgery, the NYT shows how the hospital continually ignored the warnings of its physicians about the dangers of the pediatric cardiac surgery program. It talks about how the surgeons basically killed the patients by bad techniques and abetted by the administration for taking on cases it shouldn't and inadequate resources along with the usual hospital administration tactic of stonewalling and denial. When the cardiologists threatened to send patients elsewhere for their surgery the administration responded with veiled threats about cutting cardiology positions. The hospital had cut services for the pediatric cardiac surgery program by removing cardiac intensivists and getting rid of its Cardiac intensive Care and letting its nurses go. Most of the problems occurred in 2016-17 and the hospital has made some efforts to improve but enough?? I wouldn't have my grandchild operated there.
Seattle's Children's Hospital closed its surgical suites after they found Aspergillus mold in several ORs. About 3000 patients were notified of the possible exposure.
Methodist university Hospital has put in a track your nurse app in the transplant unit. It will let you know when your nurse will come to your room. It is basically a digital whiteboard that tells a patient the daily plan, a pain scale, when the last pain med was given and when the next one is due. Each new room also has an iPad, a TV and an Apple TV device,. If a patient needs help they push a button which is connected to their nurses phone. The button also acts as a speaker.
Drexel University and Tower Health are insinuating themselves even more into the professional lives of their physicians or in this case providers. They have signed a letter of intent to combine their provider practices. Drexel needed to do something with the imminent closure of Hahnemann University Hospital.
One must take it with a grain of salt because the union is in a disagreement with Kaiser but the mental health workers are accusing Kaiser of cutting corners in initial mental health evaluations. The HMO uses telephone intakes which are not of psychiatric guidelines but do allow the HMO to not be dinged by California.
The University of California Medical School has ended its negotiations with Dignity Health due to the Catholic Hospitals religious restrictions on care. The UCSF physicians did not want to be affiliated with the "discrimination" .
Beaumont Hospital in Michigan and the largest medical group in the area United Physicians have divorced. The reason is of course money. Beaumont voted out the physician group for not paying capital contributions. Beaumont says that even if there is no more contract with the physician organization that the individual physicians will take care of the Beaumont patients under individual contracts.
UC Davis has agreed to negotiate with the new Resident's union on the resident's concerns. The union is the Committee of Interns and Residents affiliated with SEIU. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the information presented.