When Medicare disclosed average charges from thousands of U.S. hospitals for 100 common procedures last week, only one hospital was near the top in every category: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Be it a cardiac stent, a hip replacement or a pacemaker, Cedars-Sinai's list prices for these routine treatments ranked among the top 5% in the country. —L.A. Times, 05/20/13 More »
Nurses at Marin General Hospital have asked administrators to put implementation of a new computerized physician order entry system on hold until glitches can be worked out and more training provided to nurses and doctors who use it. —Marin Independent Journal, 05/15/13 More »
Hospitals in Ventura County used billing charges in 2011 that exceeded their actual costs by a range of 339 to 598 percent, according to data from the California Nurses Association. —Pharmacy Choice. First appeared in Ventura County Star, CA, 05/15/13 More »
If the strike plans go through, it would be the largest nurses strike in the state’s history, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United. The strike would see more than 2,000 nurses walk off the job to protest cuts in nursing and support staff in the past two years, which they insist will greatly affect patient care. —Examiner.com, 05/15/13 More »
Registered nurses form the backbone of an advanced health care system. They spend notoriously long shifts at hard labor, under great risk of work-related injury or disease, while maintaining professional and technical standards as a matter of life and death. Even under these conditions, nurses are also the heart and soul of our hospitals and clinics, providing a human touch and support for the emotional needs of the patients. It's most fitting that we honor their enormous efforts and vital contributions to our collective well-being. —Governor Jerry Brown, 05/10/13 More »
A bill aimed at increasing accountability and charity care provided by California's nonprofit hospitals has gained the support of the City Council. —Inside Bay Area, 05/08/13 More »
Nearly 500 RNs will be part of California Nurses Association. Registered nurses at Queen of the Valley Medical Center voted by 64 percent Tuesday night to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. —Napa Valley Register, 05/01/13 More »
Residents of Deerfield cast an overwhelming vote last night to approve a resolution placed on the warrant for the 2013 Annual Town Meeting, which calls upon Baystate Health System to ensure and maintain a broad range of health services at nearby Baystate Franklin Medical Center and to prevent the further erosion of services once available at BFMC that are now only offered in Springfield. The full text of the resolution can be found at the end of this release. —Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United, 04/30/13 More »
OHIO--Local nurses are showing support for the rights of registered nurses by attending a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Cleveland that begins Monday, and by wearing stickers that read “I Stand with Ann for RNs’ Rights.” —IndeOnline.com, 04/29/13 More »
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Tuesday proposed legislation that would require hospitals to maintain a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio at all times, and allow the government to audit and penalize hospitals that fail to comply with this rule. —TheHill.com, 04/26/13 More »
More than 4,600 workers were killed on the job in 2011 – the latest year for which we have complete data – spanning many ages, industries, and causes of death, an analysis by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) has found. —COSHnetwork.org, 04/24/13 More »
Those who lost limbs in the Boston Marathon bombings now need care to learn to navigate the world in a new way — and navigate a thorny area of health care coverage, too. In the case of the Boston bombings, pledges and offers of support have poured in to help with the health care costs of the 14 people who reportedly lost all or part of a limb. But for some amputees, covering the staggering cost for prosthetics care can be a struggle. —Politico.com, 04/24/13 More »
The President’s new budget proposes to use the chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) for computing cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security and certain other federal benefits, as well as for indexing key parameters of the tax code. —Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 04/23/13 More »
CHICAGO--As this is written, everyone wounded in the terror bombings at the Boston Marathon has survived his or her wounds. This remarkable testament to effective medical response stems largely from Boston’s exceptional health-care capacity. —Chicago Sun-Times, By Jesse Jackson, 04/23/13 More »
When you're shopping for health insurance, wouldn't it be great if you could find out every insurer's claim denial rate? And how much each one spent on lobbying and advertising -- and how much they paid their CEO? —Huffington Post, By Wendell Potter, 04/23/13 More »
WASHINGTON -- The staggering death toll continues to rise -- not in Boston, but in the small town of West, Texas. Buried by the extraordinary developments in the marathon bombing case, the confirmed deaths of at least 14 people and the injuries of 200 more have been all but lost in the breaking terrorism news. But about 1,800 miles from Boston, rescuers and investigators are sorting through the wreckage of the devastating industrial disaster. —Huffington Post, 04/22/13 More »
Sutter Solano Medical Center remains one of five holdouts in ongoing contract talks between Sutter facilities and their nurses union. That's because a tentative agreement has been reached with Marin County's Sutter Novato Community Hospital, union officials said. —Vallejo Times Herald , 04/19/13 More »
Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota is reintroducing his Inclusive Prosperity Act, a proposal to add a small “financial transactions tax” on high-volume, high-speed trading by Wall Street speculators. The tax—similar to one that the US imposed until 1966, and to taxes maintained by 40 countries worldwide—would generate roughly $1 trillion in revenue over 10 years. —The Nation, By Jorn n', 04/17/13 More »
The unprecedented level of economic inequality in America is undeniable. In an extended essay, Bill Moyers shares examples of the striking extremes of wealth and poverty across the country, including a video report on California’s Silicon Valley. There, Facebook, Google, and Apple are minting millionaires, while the area’s homeless — who’ve grown 20 percent in the last two years — are living in tent cities at their virtual doorsteps. —AlterNet, 04/12/13 More »
The Minnesota Nurses Association announced late Tuesday that Duluth nurses came to a tentative contract agreement with St. Luke’s hospital that would raise wages 4.5 percent. The three-year agreement would go into effect in July and run into June 2016. —Duluth News Tribune, 04/12/13 More »
