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CVS is planning to launch a new home delivery system of medications to compete against Amazon. The delivery charge is $5. Walgreens is doing the same thing but with a $20 charge. CVS will also deliver many sundries as well. The people do not have to be home to get the delivery for one or two day delivery but they do for same day delivery. Small pharmacies like my father's have been doing that since the 1950s, and for no charge.
The Amazon JPMorgan Chase and Berksire conglomeration have hired part time a surgeon to head the operation. Dr. Atul Gawande, the Harvard endocrine surgeon and author, will head the program but will not give up his day job. The one million company employees will hope to get better health care at a lower price.
The DOD with its over 9 million beneficiaries is having a problem balancing the necessary security with the transparency necessary for state monitoring programs. The pharmacies on base can not share with state programs and their physicians can not access the civilian data base. They say that they are working on a fix.
Delaware has a primary care crisis. The state insurers are paying primary care physicians below Medicare and forcing them to leave practice. There is a new law in the state that mandates insurers pay at least Medicare rates. This is probably too little too late.
Washington Health System in Pennsylvania has suspended a dozen employees after an in-house investigation of alleged inappropriate access to patient records.
Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center has resumed their heart transplant program. The suspended it several weeks ago after more than expected deaths. The hospital says a review does not identify any systemic problems as the cause. They are making some systemic changes.
In SoCal there is a medical office building on the Tri-City Medical Oceanside campus that is empty. It has been empty for years. There is a long running legal battle over the worth of the building. An eminent domain jury set the price at $16.8 million plus $3 million in damages the hospital has not paid the previous land owner. The hospital believes there was a conflict of interest because one of their own board members who voted for the acquisition had a grandson's medical bills paid by the original owners. She has been exonerated and has gotten damages on this issue in the past.
The New York Hospital system has paid $500,000 to settle lawsuits that two of their physicians are "sexist sickos". One settlement went to a surgical tech who accused Dr. Alberto Velesco for fondling her buttocks and referring to the female staff as bitches. She claimed the management knew of all this and did nothing. The other physician was the chief of radiology Dr. Hussein Matari who was accused of telling a PA she looked like a prostitute and wondering if she had work done on her breasts.
Mercy Children's Hospital in St. Louis is trying to retain nurses by giving them off during the slow summer. They will not be paid but will receive a q 2 week stipend for insurance costs and can use accrued time off for additional income. They also will be allowed to pick up additional shifts at the hospital.
Hennepin Healthcare has been studying Ketamine. They are testing on people with no informed consent but the ability to opt out after they have been dosed for severe agitation. One of the major side effects they are finding is respiratory depression with 57% of patients requiring intubations. The hospital says they do not require consent since they are doing it in emergency situations. After the story came out Hennepin stopped the study.
San Francisco's General Hospital is now in the center of a Vox report on ridiculous ED fees. They tell the story of an 8 month old South Korean baby who fell off a bed and hit his head. He cried so the dumb parents called 911 and an ambulance transported him to the hospital. The hospital said he was fine and was discharged. The bill came two years later for $18/836 including a trauma activation fee of $15,666. The insurance would cover $5,000. The bill for the baby was the lower trauma fee. The major trauma fee is double the lower one. Hospitals will quickly kill the golden goose and then trauma centers will close. Hospital CEOs and execs have never been MENSA types.
Jahi McMath is now officially dead. She is the pre-teen who was declared brain dead following a T&A at Oakland Children's Hospital. She has been on a vent and finally developed massive bleeding. The family is suing Children's hospital but now can not collect for continued damages.
Dr. Beth Keegstra, a contracted ED physician at El Camino Hospital in California, has lost her position for speaking harshly to a patient who she believed was a malingerer and drug seeker. The patient's father videotaped the encounter which as gone viral. They did not like waiting hours to see the physician after he became ill. He was on Klonidine and said he could not move and could not inhale which prompted the statement "Are you dead".
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.