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The saga of St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale ,Washington continues. This is the hospital where a nurse called 911 for help with patients. The thing that was said at the time and is still not being said is that the EMR had been down for weeks causing a massive patient problem. Also now several weeks later a local union is circulating a petition to scrap the CEO and CNO. They are rightfully concerned that the administration following the call fired the ED director instead of tending to the underlying problem. The hospital has finally acknowledged its short staffing issues. The also state that no one is interviewing for any ED position. As an addendum, the hospital called for help from the fire department again on November 11 as it was being inundated with patients. The hospital has also been denied full accreditation by The Joint.
A TV expose has put the blame where it belongs in the documentary Capturing the Killer Nurse. They blame rightly the hospital administrators for allowing Charles Cullen to get away with murdering an unknown number of patients. He had been caught at each hospital he worked and then moved on to another hospital to continue his felonies.
To no one's surprise, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation report showed that the median proportion of operating expenses hospitals dedicate to charity care is 1.4%. They should get rid of their not for profit standings. A follow-up report by the WSJ tells the details about the hospital's poor performance in helping patients.
The Board of Metro Health has fired the CEO Akram Boutros, MD. The reason is they found out that he authorized almost $2 million in bonuses without divulging the information to the Board. He was going to retire at the end of the year but was canned instead. Attorneys for Dr. Boutros are alleging that the action is retaliatory for him blowing the whistle on the hiring of a new CEO. He contends the Board met illegally and that the Board President illegally authorized payments of money without board approval. Even if true this does not do anything to absolve Dr, Boutros of his illegal actions.
Providence has closed all its outpatient ExpressCare clinics in SoCal due to a large monetary loss there. They will continue with virtual clinics. The Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington, after a patient died in their ED. They are attempting to stonewall but the city is fighting them. The hospital will back down soon.
Providence nurses in Oregon have asked the County DA to investigate what they say is theft of their wages. They are accused of systematically underpaying their staff. Providence says they are aware of problems but they deny theft or intent.
Kaiser has agreed to pay their nurses a 22.5% raise over the four year term of anew contract therefore canceling a strike by about 22,000 nurses and NPs.
Dr. Ian Reight is voluntarily resigning as the president of the medical staff of MaineGeneral Hospital and is also resigning from the Board of the hospital due to allegations of sex discrimination and also patient care complaints. An investigation blamed the hospital and its surgical medical director for not doing enough to address the complaints.
The mayor of Marysville, Tennessee has written a letter to the Board of Blount Memorial Hospital seeking the resignation of three Board members for fiscal mismanagement. This is due to the Board okaying the purchase of Blount Memorial Hospital in Springbrook with out the authority of the county. The CEO says there were misrepresentations in the letter but does not say what they are. Blount has about 40 locations in Eastern Tennessee. The Eastern Tennessee Blount County board of commissioners then voted to remove the entire booard of the hospital.
The CEO of Winter Haven Hospital in Florida, Kidada Hawkins, has resigned after his arrest fro soliciting a prostitute. Top
Another study has shown what all urologists already knew that the guidelines from the USPSTF were ill thought out. After their poor recommendation that PSA should not be done to screen for prostate cancer the rates of metastatic prostate cancer when first found were rising. As screening went from 47% to 37% over 14 years the rates of for metastatic cancer on diagnosis almost doubled from 4.6 cases per 100,000 to 8.2 cases. The committee continues to harm the public by their latest recommendation that men over 70 should not be screened.
Walgreens' VillageMD has purchased Summit Health-CityMD for about $9 Billion. They and CVS are vying for who can be the biggest poorly run medical facility in the country.
A recent study has shown that hospitals charge insurers more than non-pay people. Of course they do. By charging insurers full rates they can charge discounted rates to the non pay and still make money.
In a real feel good story, Dr. Steven Lorme, a cardiologist, was running a half marathon when not one but two people collapsed ahead of him. They were both in cardiac arrest and he did CPR on both with good results.
In the never-ending quest for more money health systems are now beginning to charge for messaging your physician over MyChart. This is for patients that message for items that require time to review the patient's chart. 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.