Maternal Health, Equity Key Factors in Proposed CMS Rule for Hospitals
In a new proposed payment rule for inpatient and long-term hospitals, CMS suggested the establishment of a “birthing-friendly” hospital designation in an effort to promote better health outcomes among mothers. In addition to addressing the nation’s maternal health crisis, the proposed rule includes three equity-focused measures as a way to improve care among underserved and […]
Testicular Mass Serendipitously Found 12 Years After Prostate Cancer Dx
A 79-year-old man with a 12-year history of clinically localized prostate cancer presented to a hospital with a urethral stricture. He had developed radiation cystitis and low-grade non-invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder some time after he received proton therapy following his prostate cancer diagnosis. In the process of prepping the patient for cystoscopic dilation […]
Tufts Nurses Rally for Children’s Access to Care as Closure Looms
As the shuttering of 41 pediatric inpatient beds at Tufts Children’s Hospital in Boston draws near, nurses rallied on Tuesday over their concern that the closure will severely limit access to care. Though the Tufts Medicine Health System reasoned in its public announcement of the closure that it would convert 41 pediatric inpatient beds at […]
COVID-19 mixed with flu increases risk of severe illness and death
Adults in hospital who have Covid-19 and the flu at the same time are at much greater risk of severe disease and death compared with patients who have Covid-19 alone or with other viruses, research shows. Patients with co-infection of SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and influenza viruses were over four times more likely to require […]
Opinion | Residency Is Broken. We’re Unionizing to Fix It.
On its website, UMass Memorial Health states that the hospital system was created to “make health and healthcare available to everyone.” This mission is made possible by the “people of UMass Memorial Health” and their “relentless pursuit of healing in all its forms.” As frontline resident physicians who work day in and day out to […]
The Case Number That Will Make the Unsafe Safe, Revealed
In this video, Jeremy Faust, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and MedPage Today‘s editor-in-chief, discusses a new model he has created to answer the question: at what point can we stop masking and still keep the immunocompromised safe? The following is a transcript of his remarks: Hi, this is Jeremy Faust, editor-in-chief […]
Immune memory less durable after severe COVID-19, study suggests: Researchers compared results in less-severe and severe COVID-19 cases one and five months after symptom onset
Infection-fighting B cells retain better memory of the coronavirus spike protein in University Hospital patients who recover from less-severe cases of COVID-19 than in those recovering from severe COVID-19, a new study suggests. Findings by scientists from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio were published Wednesday (Dec. 22) in the journal […]
Several Factors Contribute to GI Bleeding Mortality Risk
Patients who developed upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding during a hospital stay experienced worse adverse outcomes than those admitted for upper GI bleeding alone, French researchers found in a prospective study. Currently hospitalized patients (dubbed “inpatients”) with upper GI bleeding showed a significantly higher mortality rate at 6 weeks than patients hospitalized for GI bleeding alone […]
As COVID-19 Surges In Eastern Europe, Leaders Slow To Act
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — At the main hospital in Romania’s capital, the morgue ran out of space for the dead in recent days, and doctors in Bulgaria have suspended routine surgeries so they can tend to a surge in COVID-19 patients. In the Serbian capital, the graveyard now operates an extra day during the week […]
Two Doses of mRNA COVID Vax Not Enough for the Immunosuppressed
COVID-19 vaccines worked fairly well in keeping immunocompromised patients out of the hospital from the infection, but still less than for those with a competent immune system, a study showed. After two vaccine doses, immunocompromised patients saw 77% vaccine effectiveness (95% CI 74%-80%) against hospitalization for confirmed COVID-19, with a 3.9% rate of SARS-CoV-2 test […]