Imagine an illicit drug so powerful that a dose of just three salt-sized grains is fatal. A drug so dangerous that first responders answering a 911 call reporting an overdose should wear hazmat suits to protect themselves from exposure to … [Read more...]
Providers and the Health Care Problem
Hello, It's not getting much attention in the debate over health care when attention from the left focuses on insurance companies and the public option and the right speaks of government takeover, but providers will have to reduce costs. … [Read more...]
Sometimes doctors make mistakes. Then what?
I just went to a hearing at the State House on health care quality. Featured were three patients who have endured massive pain and suffering -- and incurred massive expense -- because of utterly preventable, lack-of-common-sense medical … [Read more...]
Hospital mortality: What we don’t know
True to pattern, Paul Levy of Beth Israel Deaconess thinks it's a good idea for hospitals to make their HSMR scores public, and wonders why insurers don't require that. He frames it as a matter of keeping good faith with the … [Read more...]
More of what Romney’s budget cuts have done
Closing admission to the state mental health hospital system to all new patients and cutting 57 nurses and mental health workers and 16 pyschiatrists -- a move which may jeopardize the hospitals' national accreditation. Cut 40 positions -- … [Read more...]