Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
After Initial Slow Response, Hospitals Are Beginning To Cut Down On Medical Errors: Study
A November 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine titled To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths a year were caused by medical error .... Despite all the adverse public attention and criticism the report drew, hospitals and medical professionals were slow to respond. ... A new study published this week by JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, concludes that hospitals and the medical profession have finally begun to make improvements. Notably, there was a sharp decline in the rate of harmful medical mistakes between 2010 and 2014. (Pianin, 6/15)
In other hospital news —
The MetroHealth System, Cleveland's oldest medical institution, is undergoing a rapid -- and seemingly paradoxical -- shift in business strategy: It is trying to stop patients from coming to the hospital. In a series of recent moves, the health system has sought to lessen patients' reliance on its flagship medical center in Cleveland by increasing access to primary and preventive care services at other MetroHealth facilities. (Ross, 6/14)
The latest Nationwide Children’s Hospital expansion will create 2,000 jobs in less than a decade and add an eight-story tower, office and research buildings and more parking to its sprawling campus. ... What Children’s has been doing during the past decade has been duplicated in cities across the country. Older hospitals nestled in dense urban neighborhoods have expanded their footprints, gobbling up vacant lots in some cases, adjacent homes and businesses in others, changing an area’s fabric and leaving those who live and work there wondering what’s coming next. (Ferenchik, 6/15)
