After repeated state budget cuts, South Carolina hospitals recently got good news from the federal government. The federal Partnership for Patients program will give South Carolina hospitals $1 million per year for at least the next two years to improve hospital quality. Participating hospitals must reduce readmissions by 20 percent…
The bad economic environment has prompted South Carolina’s legislature to seek cuts from public programs. Eighteen hospitals will receive an 8% cut in their state funding. The hospitals have been recognized by the federal government for their treatment of the uninsured. The cuts come at a time when the federal…
In the battle against hospital acquired infections, a new tool has emerged: anti-microbial copper. Researchers, in a study funded by the US Department of Defense, installed the material on different hospital surfaces at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and two other US hospitals. The copper led to a…
The Palmetto state barely received a “D” from the March of Dimes for the high rate of babies born prematurely. South Carolina, which received an “F” in 2010, was only 0.1% away from receiving an “F” in 2011. Of all births in South Carolina in 2011, 14.5% were premature, making…
A South Carolina health care group has received an $11.25 million grant from the Duke Endowment to improve patient care through data collection. The group, Health Sciences South Carolina, is a statewide biomedical research collaborative composed of several hospital systems and three universities. Dr. Iain Sanderson, Health Sciences’ chief medical…
A recent survey of U.S. physicians found that the majority (52%) believed the current level of care their patients receive is sufficient. However, media outlets and policy makers have focused on the minority (28%) who believe they are personally over-treating patients. The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine,…
Forty-five hospitals in South Carolina intend to sign an agreement to end elective C-sections before the 39th week of pregnancy. Pregnancies are normally 40 weeks long. Some experts believe that a good national average for caesareans is 4.5 percent. The United States had 31 percent, or one in three deliveries…
A physician’s assistant (PA) was found negligent in the death of a 42-year-old woman from congestive heart failure less than two months after giving birth to twins at The McDowell Hospital in Marion, NC. The lawsuit was brought by the husband who claimed the defendants did not do all they…
The Des Moines Register reports that the state of Iowa has settled a lawsuit filed against the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics after a young girl went to the hospital in 2007 for a stomach surgery, and had to have her leg amputated after she developed compartment syndrome. The…
The Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida paid $650,000 to settle a lawsuit against a man with a “retained foreign object and medication error.” The man also reached a confidential settlement against two radiologists. The now 68-year-old man was admitted to the hospital in October 2009 to…