Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Three Prominent Hospital Systems Set Surgeon Requirements For High-Risk Procedures
After James Happli of Mosinee, Wisconsin, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was referred to a surgeon at a local hospital where he had been treated for lymphoma 28 years earlier. The surgeon told Happli and his wife that although she had never successfully performed a Whipple procedure -- the pancreatic cancer operation widely regarded as among the most difficult in surgery -- she believed she could do it with the help of a second surgeon. But Happli's operation had to be aborted after it proved too difficult. Several months later, the pipe fitter, now 58, traveled to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, 175 miles from his home. His operation, one of 127 Whipples done at Froedtert last year, was performed successfully by chief surgeon Douglas B. Evans. (Boodman, 4/27)
The latest Hospital Safety Scores released by the not-for-profit watchdog Leapfrog Group show less than 25 percent of general, acute-care hospitals in Florida earned an A. Last year, nearly half earned As. Over the past four years, the Leapfrog Group has issued grades, which are determined largely by Medicare data. The group calculates the grades twice a year on using data on errors, injuries, accidents and infections, and posts the results in a searchable database. (Miller, 4/26)
Sacramento鈥檚 Sutter Health and its Valley Area arm have been named among the top-performing health systems in the country by Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Truven Health Analytics. (Glover, 4/26)
