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At a Cook County board meeting this month, Dr. Tatyana Kagan stood to address the commissioners. It was the first time she had attended a meeting. Kagan works in the pediatric emergency room at Stroger Hospital and came to object to the hospital's plan to consolidate the pediatric ER with the main ER. Reading from a speech, Kagan said the creation of a single emergency department would harm quality of care, subjecting children and their guardians to long waits and the sometimes chaotic atmosphere of the adult ER. (Sachdev, 9/25)

The test results inside Marymount Hospital's clinical laboratory were a patchwork of scribbled notes and white-out. In some instances, new results were written on top of the white-out. In others, the words "change" or "RERUN" were written and circled. The notations were evidence of a severe violation: the Cleveland Clinic-owned lab was improperly altering tests designed to verify the accuracy of its results, according to a report by federal investigators. (Ross, 9/25)

In a quiet but competitive building boom, Minnesota hospitals and health systems are spending millions of dollars on clinics and medical services that beckon an increasingly important group of patients: Women. The projects, which total more than $136 million over the last five years, include swank new maternity suites but reach well beyond obstetrics and gynecology to include cancer care, mammography, mental health and even acupuncture and massage. (Howatt, 9/27)

For trauma workers like Jonathan Bartels, a nurse who has worked in emergency care and palliative care, witnessing death over and over again takes a toll. Over time, they can become numb or burned out. But about two years ago, after Bartels and his team at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville tried and failed to resuscitate a patient, something happened. (Lofton, 9/28)