Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Mass. Hospital Faulted For Lax Safety Measures After Removing Kidney From Wrong Patient
A surgeon at Saint Vincent Hospital unnecessarily removed a patient’s kidney because he relied on the test results of another patient with the same name, according to public health inspectors who found serious safety lapses at the hospital. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services threatened to terminate Saint Vincent from the Medicare program on Dec. 12 if the Worcester hospital does not put in place improvements, according to a letter last month from the agency to hospital chief executive Steven MacLauchlan. (Kowalczyk, 10/14)
Five major hospitals are challenging a proposal by the Florida Department of Health that would revamp the approval of new trauma centers — the latest chapter in years of legal wrangling about the state's trauma system. Tampa General Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Bayfront Health in St. Petersburg, UF Health Jacksonville and Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers filed the challenges last week in the state Division of Administrative Hearings. They contend that the Department of Health is overstepping its legal authority in the proposal, which would change criteria that have limited the numbers of trauma centers allowed in each of 19 areas of the state. (10/13)
After three nights in the hospital following a fall, 73-year-old Gail Rubin learned she would need rehab in a skilled nursing facility before she could go back to her Havertown home. Twenty-five days later, Rubin left rehab walloped with out-of-pocket expenses totaling more than $9,000 and a hard lesson in the high cost of Medicare's complicated rules. Saturday marks the start of the annual open enrollment period, in which Medicare beneficiaries are urged to study their plan options. It's a good time to assess how your health status, or what your plan covers, may have changed. (Wood, 10/14)
