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When hospital patients have to be readmitted soon after discharge, hospitals look bad. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-hospital-readmission.html Health Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:44:55 EST news269102690 (AP)—Medicare is changing the way it does business with hospitals and the result could be fewer patients going back into the hospital after they were discharged. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-medicare-fines-hospitals-readmitted-patients.html Health Sun, 30 Sep 2012 06:38:18 EST news268205887 (HealthDay)—In patients who have undergone spinal fusion surgery with intraoperative fluoroscopic guidance and have no postoperative problems, postoperative radiographs do not provide additional clinical information and are not cost-effective, according to a study published in the July issue of The Spine Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-radiography-unnecessary-spinal-fusion-surgery.html Surgery Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:14:30 EST news267095648 Each year as many as 40,500 critically ill U.S. hospital patients die with an unknown medical condition that may have caused or contributed to their death, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts report in a recent study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-icu-misdiagnoses-account-annual-deaths.html Health Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:00:59 EST news265294849 Hospitals that mostly serve Black patients have worse mortality outcomes for both Black and White patients with three common conditions: heart attack, congestive heart failure or pneumonia. The new study in Health Services Research suggests that there is an urgent need to improve care at predominately black-serving institutions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-predominately-black-serving-hospitals-poorer.html Health Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:10:17 EST news261994212 A Danish hospital said Thursday it had offered HIV and hepatitis tests to 719 patients after discovering a flaw in a special washing machine that could entail exposure to the viruses. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-hiv-danish-hospital-machine-flaw.html Health Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:30:01 EST news261915069 When hospital patients need assistance breathing and are placed on a mechanical ventilator for days at a time, their lungs react to the pressure generated by the ventilator with an out-of-control immune response that can lead to excessive inflammation, new research suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-lungs-hospital-ventilator-infection.html Medical research Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:00:47 EST news261849639 (Medical Xpress) -- Creating specialized hospital units for elderly people with acute medical illness could reduce national health care costs by as much $6 billion a year, according to a new study by UCSF researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-specialized-hospital-elderly-patients-significantly.html Health Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:30:01 EST news258628378 There's new hope for development of an antibiotic that can put down a lethal bacteria or superbug linked to the deaths of hundreds of hospital patients around the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-weakness-armor-killer-hospital-bacteria.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:00:14 EST news258306056 (HealthDay) -- Roughly 2.5 percent of admitted hospital patients may receive more than the safe daily cumulative dose of the pain-reliever acetaminophen, best known as Tylenol, on at least one day, according to a new U.S. study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-patients-acetaminophen-hospital.html Medications Wed, 23 May 2012 17:40:01 EST news257012772 In-hospital mortality for ICU patients is often used as a quality measure, but discharge practices may bias results in a way that disadvantages large academic hospitals, according to a recently conducted study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-in-hospital-mortality-icu-bias-quality.html Other Mon, 21 May 2012 09:47:46 EST news256812454 (HealthDay) -- Average emergency department wait times for adult patients with psychiatric emergencies is 11.5 hours, and can be even longer for those who are older, uninsured, or intoxicated, according to research published online May 4 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-psychiatric-patients-average-hours-er.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 14 May 2012 15:40:31 EST news256228819 Stroke patients receiving in-patient rehabilitation are more likely to land back in the hospital within three months if they are functioning poorly, show signs of depression and lack social support according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston. Hospital readmission for older adults within 30 days of discharge costs Medicare roughly $18 billion annually. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-predictors-rehospitalization-post-acute-patients.html Health Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:51:57 EST news252937884 (HealthDay) -- In the past decade there has been a decrease in prolonged length of stay following radical cystectomy in the United States, while rates of transfer to a facility have remained stable, with insurance status and the surgical institution affecting discharge patterns, according to a study published in the April issue of The Journal of Urology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-post-radical-cystectomy-discharge-patterns.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:40:01 EST news252245584 Combining common antibiotics with additional compounds could make previously resistant bacteria more susceptible to the same antibiotics. 'Resuscitation' of existing antibiotics has the potential to make infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria easier to control, reducing antibiotic usage and levels of antimicrobial resistance, say scientists presenting their work at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Dublin this week. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-resuscitating-antibiotics-drug-resistance.html Medications Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:25:40 EST news252123929 Mobile phones could play a valuable role in helping HIV patients to take their medication every day, according to a new Cochrane Systematic Review. The researchers found that patients were less likely to miss doses if they were sent weekly mobile phone text message reminders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-text-messages-hiv-patients-antiretroviral.html HIV & AIDS Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:00:01 EST news250876404 (AP) -- Bob Landorf walked miles during his hospital stay, dragging his IV pole along, too, on a mission to upend disturbing statistics for patients his age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-bed-hospitals-aim-elderly-strong.html Health Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:14:29 EST news250517662 Heart transplant patients who receive new organs before the age of 55 and get them at hospitals that perform at least nine heart transplants a year are significantly more likely than other people to survive at least 10 years after their operations, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-younger-patients-decade-longer-heart.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:50:54 EST news249576648 (HealthDay) -- Patients admitted to the top hospitals for emergency medicine in the United States have a nearly 42 percent lower death rate than those admitted to other hospitals in the nation, according to a new report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-hospitals-emergency-medicine-quality.html Health Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:56:07 EST news249195359 Patients' ratings of hospitals tally with objective measures of the hospital's performance, according to an independent study published today in Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-patients-online-hospital-outcomes.html Health Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:00:13 EST news248370679 High hospital readmission rates in different regions of the U.S. may have more to do with the overall high use of hospital services in those regions than with the severity of patients' particular conditions or problems in the quality of care during and after hospital discharges, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-hospital-admission-linked-high-readmission.html Health Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:30:41 EST news243105947 A new study finds that patients who are moved into isolation during a hospital stay are nearly twice as likely to develop delirium, a potentially dangerous change in mental status that often affects hospital patients. Patients who began their stay in isolation were not at increased risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-patient-isolation-hospital-delirium.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:04:39 EST news242928273 A new study published in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) reports that hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infection increases length of stay in hospital by an average of six days. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-difficile-lengthens-hospital-days.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:37:28 EST news242311035 Most heart attack patients transferred between hospitals for the emergency artery-opening procedure called angioplasty are not transported as quickly as they should be, Yale School of medicine researchers report in the first national study of "door-in door-out" time for transfer patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-hospitals-critical-window-heart-patients.html Cardiology Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:00:06 EST news241715095 Surgery significantly improves short- and long-term outcomes in patients with heart failure caused by a bacterial infection known as endocarditis, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-surgery-endocarditis-induced-heart-failure-survival.html Cardiology Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:06:13 EST news241203965 Hospital patients over 65 who are referred for a psychiatric consultation and found to have delirium are more likely than those without delirium to die within one year following diagnosis, according to a new study published in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-elderly-hospital-patients-delirium-die.html Health Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:00:01 EST news240050580 A South African outbreak of a multi-drug resistant "superbug" has been contained after it infected nine patients of whom three were still in quarantine, a hospital group said Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-safrican-hospital-superbug-outbreak.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:36:13 EST news238066555 An international team of scientists led by Monash University researchers has uncovered how a common hospital bacterium becomes a deadly superbug that kills increasing numbers of hospital patients worldwide and accounts for an estimated $3.2 billion each year in health care costs in the US alone. Their findings appear October 13th in the Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-hospital-superbug-debugged.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:30:51 EST news237745839 (AP) -- The nation's worst hospitals treat twice the proportion of elderly black patients and poor patients than the best hospitals, and their patients are more likely to die of heart attacks and pneumonia, new research shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-worst-hospitals-larger-poor.html Health Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:00:01 EST news237051370 Discussing and documenting patients' preferences for care at the end of life does not cause them any harm, contrary to recent claims. A new study published today in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that patients who talk with their physicians about end-of-life care and have an advance directive in their medical record have similar survival rates as patients who do not have these discussions and documents. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-end-of-life-discussions-affect-survival.html Health Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:36:35 EST news236399775