Friday, January 29, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Med-evacs to FL hospitals halted

Posted:

1/29/2010 © Orlando Sentinel
At Gov. Crist's request, the federal government has stopped the flow of injured Haitians to Florida hospitals. Still in question is who will pay bills for the 450 severely injured patients who are already here. In the Sun-Sentinel, basic medical supplies are running low. And in Tampa, eight doctors need a plane to get to Haiti.

Former doc gets life in prison

Posted:

1/29/2010 © Northwest Florida Daily News
David Willis Webb, a former Destin physician convicted of prescribing drugs to patients without monitoring them, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison. Three of his patients died.

Health insurance: $1,200 a month

Posted:

1/28/2010 © Orlando Sentinel
The insurance offered by Cindy Parker-Martinez's husband's employer costs $1,200 a month. Between hospital stays, health problems and routine doctors visits, they are $20,000 in debt and unable to pay the premiums.

'Trellis' zaps clot, hoovers it out

Posted:

1/28/2010 © St. Petersburg Times
Doctors at Pepin Heart Hospital say that instead of forcing patients at risk of blood clots to take blood-thinner drugs in perpetuity, it's safer to put the dissolver directly on the clot and vacuum it out.

Haitian injured going statewide

Posted:

1/27/2010 © Health News Florida
As the trauma centers and hospitals in South Florida cope with hundreds of injured Haitians, state emergency operations staff are now directing military airlift flights to Orlando and Tampa, with Jacksonville soon to follow. Tampa got its first load of 17 patients last night, with most going to Tampa General.  Miami Herald reports that Jackson Health System and the University of Miami are piling up expenses.

Patient or fetus -- whose rights prevail?

Posted:

1/26/2010 © Associated Press
The case of Samantha Burton, who was forced to remain in the hospital for the welfare of her fetus, is drawing attention to the question of whether pregnancy deprives patients of their rights.

Hospital's foundation: politics

Posted:

1/26/2010 © Florida Times-Union
Children's hospitals have a halo effect, but the story behind Nemours' battle to build in Orlando is one of politics. The powerful Jacksonville foundation used its clout to overcome health planners' warnings that there weren't enough patients for so many children's hospitals.

Outside nurses can fill in

Posted:

1/26/2010 © Miami Herald
As health workers returned from Haiti, Gov. Charlie Crist signed an executive order that allows out-of-state nurses to fill in for colleagues in Miami who want to go to Haiti. In the Palm Beach Post, John Travolta has landed his own jet in Haiti carrying relief supplies, doctors and Scientology ministers. In Melbourne, one nurse returns from Haiti just to organize a second trip with more personnel and medication.

United's threat worries hospitals

Posted:

1/24/2010 New York Times
United Healthcare has told hospitals it will cut their pay in half if they fail to notify the insurer within 24 hours of admission of a United customer. Florida's hospital association has asked state insurance regulators to monitor the situation; some states are intervening.

Rescued dog is now 'victim's advocate'

Posted:

1/23/2010 © St. Petersburg Times
Little Horatio was seriously injured while protecting his elderly owner from the abuse of her son. After being rescued, he became a therapy dog, visiting hospice patients and giving them hope for recovery.

Red tape cut for docs, kids in Haiti

Posted:

1/22/2010 © Orlando Sentinel
After badgering Obama administration officials for a week to make it easier to fly injured Haitian children to Florida hospitals for treatment, Sen. Bill Nelson prevailed Thursday. Doctors on the ground in Haiti will now be given broad authority to send the children to the United States for treatment. In Miami, a couple in Haiti wonder if a child pulled from the rubble and being treated at a Miami hospital is their missing daughter.

Premature babies suffer vision loss

Posted:

1/22/2010 © St. Petersburg Time
Cynthia Romero Torres, 18 months, was born at 25 weeks' gestation, weighing 1 pound. Her eyes were so underdeveloped, she's had seven surgeries. While survival rates of extremely preterm babies are rising, so is the incidence of vision problems, including blindness. Doctors fear they won't be able to handle it.

Kidney failure puts man's life in limbo

Posted:

1/22/2010 © Daytona Beach News-Journal
Matt Payne has never been hospitalized in his life, so why is his kidney functioning at a level just 13 percent above shutdown, putting him in stage five of kidney failure and needing a kidney transplant? His doctors don't know.

As records go digital, cultures clash

Posted:

By Sammy Mack
1/21/2010 © Health News Florida
The switch to electronic medical records has been rocky for doctors in Broward who refused to pay what they called unwarranted charges and were turned over to collections. More disputes are arising as midcareer physicians bump up against the world of high-tech software sales.

Future of health overhaul in doubt

Posted:

1/20/2010 © Kaiser Health News
As Republicans celebrated a Senate victory in Massachusetts that they say means the death of Pres. Obama’s health-overhaul, experts weigh in on the reasons for the public's disenchantment. Meanwhile in Florida, a former Senate majority leader warned that if the effort collapses, it won't be revived for a decade. Earlier in the day, Atty. Gen. Bill McCollum  released a memo listing reasons why the health bills are unconstitutional.

FL docs play key roles in Haiti

Posted:

1/18/2010 © Miami Herald
U-Miami neurosurgeon Barth Green is coordinating international medical relief in Haiti and will run a field hospital set up under tents at the airport in Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile the Gainesville Sun reports that a UF forensic scientist is in Port-au-Prince setting up a portable mortuary. And some doctors say the biggest threat to Haitians' health may be yet to come, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Team rescues Florida woman

Posted:

1/18/2010 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mireille Dittmer's family in Pembroke Pines rejoiced when a rescue team from South Florida pulled her from a collapsed market in Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, the Fort Myers News-Press describes the struggles of a medical team from Naples, struggling to save lives in the chaos.

Doctor wrote 1,000 scripts/week

Posted:

By Carol Gentry
1/15/2010 © Health News Florida
Since 2004, a Miami psychiatrist has prescribed almost 14 million pills to Medicaid patients at a cost to taxpayers of $43 million, a feverish pace of 1,000 prescriptions a week. A state senator says the doctor should be the "poster boy for tougher enforcement actions."

Medics overwhelmed by injured

Posted:

 1/14/2010 © New York Times
First aid responders and doctors tried to triage the massive number of injured in Haiti as the death toll estimate rose to 45,000. They didn't even have aspirin, much less anesthesia.

Insurers, state reach pact on cancer

Posted:

By Christine Jordan Sexton
1/13/2010 © Health News Florida
The state’s largest insurance companies on Wednesday said they have signed a voluntary pact committing them to cover routine medical treatments for cancer patients who enroll in clinical trials. 

Jackson Health names new COO

Posted:

1/13/2010 © Miami Herald
David R. Small arrives from a similar post in Chicago to help stimulate Miami-Dade's beleaguered safety-net system. Jackson officials also said the process is well under way to have three systems pay for one month of dialysis for 40-some patients.

County, hospitals fight over billing

Posted:

1/13/2020 © Sarasota Health News
A financial dispute between three Sarasota County hospitals and the county government has triggered a lobbying battle over the laws creating Sarasota Memorial Hospital and its tax authority. Three for-profit facilities -- Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, Englewood Community Hospital and Venice Regional Medical Center -- bill the county $37 million for their costs of caring for poor and uninsured patients since late 2008.

Drug makers in on evaluation

Posted:

1/12/2009 © Palm Beach Post
As a state committee prepares to meet Wednesday in Tampa to discuss medication for mental illness, drug companies are reaching out to the media and doctors to make their case.

Jackson stops dialysis for poor

Posted:

1/7/2010 © Miami Herald
Expecting to save $4.2 million, the financially strapped Jackson Health System has stopped paying for dialysis treatments for 175 poor patients with failing kidneys, leaving dozens of patients facing life-or-death situations.

Doctors: Downtown Orlando shooter ill

Posted:

1/5/2010 © Orlando Sentinel
Jason Rodriguez, accused of a recent shooting rampage in downtown Orlando, is mentally ill and out of touch with reality, doctors testified Monday. Rodriguez will be treated at a state hospital.

Doctor beats rap, sues insurers

Posted:

1/3/2010 © Palm Beach Post
Dr. Dipnarine Maharaj, who offers immune-system treatments to severely ill cancer patients at his office, was recently found not guilty in federal court of defrauding insurers. Now he's suing the insurers for $3 million in unpaid claims.

Is offshore med school worth cost?

Posted:

1/1/2010 St. Petersburg Times
Many Florida doctors received their education at Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, which accepts those who have low test scores and receives more than $150 million in U.S. education funding each year. Investigators are studying whether that expense is justified. 

Latest outrage: home-care scams

Posted:

12/7/2009 © Associated Press
A new report says scams in Miami- Dade brought half a billion dollars in Medicare payments for home health-care into the county last year, more than the entire rest of the nation combined. Many "patients" got big-screen TVs or free maid service.

Medicaid to launch huge data project

Posted:

By Christine Jordan Sexton
11/13/2009 © Health News Florida 
Florida is preparing to make the health histories of more than 1 million Medicaid patients accessible to 80,000 doctors, clinics and hospitals in the state on a secured-access system, the project director said Thursday. The aims: improve patient care, avoid duplication.

Insurer rethinking rules after chat

Posted:

By Christine Jordan Sexton
11/4/2009 © Health News Florida
Following a meeting with Sen. Don Gaetz, the state’s largest health insurer is examining its policies for providing health insurance to cancer patients who undergo clinical trials.

Ban balance-billing, advocate says

Posted:

By Carol Gentry and Mary Jo Melone
11/3/2009 © Health News Florida 
Sean Shaw, Florida's Insurance Consumer Advocate, is shopping around for a lawmaker brave enough to take on the medical lobby. He wants to outlaw balance-billing, a common practice that sticks patients with big bills their plan won't cover.

Public option finds favor even in FL

Posted:

10/29/2009 © Miami Herald
From the house staff at Jackson Memorial to the president-elect of the AMA, Florida doctors and nurses in quite different venues expressed support Wednesday for health-reform legislation that includes a public option, although there's disagreement on some details.

Public option on roll, but not here

Posted:

By Gary Fineout
10/27/2009 © Health News Florida 
As the public option gained momentum in Washington, Florida officials uniformly condemned it today. Gov. Charlie Crist said that his Cover Florida plan is "a better way to go" because it doesn't need tax support. Few have signed up.

FL Medicare patients 'overserved'

Posted:

10/6/2009 ©  Fort Myers News-Press
Every area of Florida except Daytona Beach and Tallahassee showed above-average billing for doctors' services in Medicare last year, according to a GAO report. The state was already a national outlier by 2000, yet recorded a big jump in billings per patient by 2008.

Doctor accused of fondling gives up license

Posted:

By Carol Gentry
10/2/2009 © Health News Florida
A Bradenton woman who agreed to wear a wire into the office of the doctor she said sexually accosted her -- Bradenton internist Gangadhara Rao Chapalamadugu -- told the Board of Medicine today that Rao should go to jail, and board members agreed after seeing complaints from six other patients. But their jurisdiction involves only medical practice; they accepted voluntary relinquishment  to keep him from ever practicing medicine in Florida again.

State clears doctors, parents protest

Posted:

By Carol Gentry
9/25/2009 © Health News Florida
Two doctors who are being sued over the high-profile death of Boca Raton teen-ager Stephanie Kuleba will not have to worry about the Board of Medicine. Confidential state documents show the state dropped its investigation months ago, and that the girl's parents were turned away when they tried to offer evidence.

Lawyer wants all records? All?

Posted:

By Mary Jo Melone
9/24/2009 Health News Florida
Florida patients have a right to ask for hospital records about past mistakes. But do they have the right to every report, every x-ray, every single piece of paper for the last 75 years?  Tampa’s largest hospital says no and has gone to court to fight it.

Today's call for action began in FL

Posted:

By Ruth Morris
9/17/2009 © Health News Florida
In Washington, D.C. today, 400 of the country’s most prominent healthcare experts unveiled a letter to Congress demanding action on the uninsured and rising costs. And it was all the brainchild of a professor who lives on quiet Anna Maria Island. 
 

Court asked to revive '3 strikes'

Posted:

McMillen

By Carol Gentry
9/10/2009 © Health News Florida
Using a malpractice case involving a child with an amputated foot, Orlando attorney Scott McMillen has filed a court challenge to legislative limits on “3 strikes and you’re out” -- a 2004 amendment aimed at dangerous doctors. The limits prevent court cases from counting as strikes.
 

Psychologist settles sex complaint

Posted:

9/1/2009 Health News Florida
St. Petersburg psychologist Ronald Droz, accused of conducting a long-term sexual relationship with one of his patients, has been placed on probation by the Florida Board of Psychology.
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