199 Results for search "Hospitals".
Patients discharged from a hospital stay are bringing antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” home with them, a new study warns.
Family members of recently discharged patients are 71 times more likely to get a MRSA infection after their return, compared with people who didn...
Hospitals could be frequently misdiagnosing pneumonia, causing patients to receive the wrong treatments and potentially become deathly ill, a new study finds.
More than half the time, a pneumonia diagnosis will change following a patient’s admission to the hospital,...
The number of people who trust doctors dropped steeply during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study says.
Worse, those who lost their faith in medicine are less likely to get vaccinated against COVID or the flu, researchers found.
“Trust in physicians and hospitals can be critical for public hea...
Hospitals and clinical laboratories across the United States are facing a critical shortage of bottles used to culture blood samples, federal health officials report.
Without the ability to culture blood, patients might receive the wrong antibiotics to treat conditions like endocarditis,
Youngsters so sick they’ve needed treatment in an ICU appear to bear the scars of that experience years later, a new study finds.
Children and teenagers treated in an intensive care unit have a significantly higher risk of developing a mental illness as they grow up, researchers reported July 20 in the
After an anesthesiologist may have exposed thousands of people treated at several hospitals in Oregon to hepatitis and HIV, those patients are being advised to get tested for the diseases.
Two health care providers in Portland -- Providence and Legacy Health -- have been told to offer the tests as a safety precaution.
"We recently learned that Providence's comprehensive infection co...
Seventeen women in nine states have fallen ill after getting fake Botox shots, with 13 of them landing in the hospital and one requiring a ventilator, a new report warns.
In the report, published Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers provided alarming details of patien...
Many Americans like the idea of receiving hospital-level care at home, believing they'd recover from their ills faster and without safety risks.
"Patients of course want the best-quality care, but often prefer to be at home, especially if technology allows them to work closely with their physician toward recovery," said study leader
One hospital's push to transition patients who are nearing the end of life from the emergency room to hospice care appears to be working.
After the program went into effect, 54% of ER patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston transitioned to hospice care within 96 hours. That compared to 22% before the program began in 2021.
Their findings suggest that such programs may hel...
Cancer patients receive less effective treatment at hospitals that mainly serve minority communities, a new study shows.
More than 9% of cancer patients are treated at hospitals where a significant percentage of patients are from minority groups, researchers say.
Those patients are less lik...
At major medical centers across the southeast, 1 in every 20 visits to emergency departments involve people who are homeless or face "housing insecurity," a new U.S. study finds.
Concerns of suicide was the leading medical reason bringing these types of patients to the ER and many were uninsured, said a team reporting recently in the journal
Childbirth is a harrowing ordeal, and it's being made worse by mistreatment from health care providers during labor, a new study says.
More than one in every eight women are mistreated during childbirth, researchers found.
Most commonly, women's requests for help during
It's hard for some folks who suffer illness-related urinary incontinence to judge whether they'll be able to hold it until they get home, or if they should rush to a bathroom now.
There might soon be a new app for that.
A newly developed soft, flexible, battery-free implant attaches to the b...
Americans living in areas where primary care doctors and nurse practitioners are in short supply face a greater risk for emergency surgeries and complications, new research shows.
They're also more likely to wind up back in the hospital after they've left it.
That's because serious health issues don't get addressed until they become emergencies, said lead study author
Hispanic Americans who are hospitalized and placed on ventilators have a higher risk of death than their white peers, and new research may reveal a reason why.
The study found that Hispanic patients in respiratory failure receive heavy sedation at a rate that is five times that of white patients, according to researchers at New York University (NYU).
That could lower their odds for...
Nearly half of health care workers nationwide say they've seen discrimination against patients while on the job, a new report reveals.
While 47% of health workers said they've witnessed discrimination against patients in their facilities, 52% said racism against patients is a major problem, according to the
The doctor tapped at his computer, ordering a routine prostate exam for an 80-year-old man, when a dramatic yellow alert popped up on the patient's electronic health record.
"You are ordering a test that no guideline recommends," it warned. "Screening with PSA can lead to harms from diagnostic and treatment procedures. If you proceed without a justification, the unnecessary test will be n...
Pediatric care for kids who aren't white is worse across the United States, a new study finds.
Racial inequities for children of color are pervasive, extending from neonatal care, emergency medicine and surgery to treatment of developmental disabilities, mental health issues and pain, researchers say.
"We now have more evidence than ever that pediatric care in the U.S. is not only d...
Palliative care is meant to ease suffering at any stage of disease, but too often many patients wait too long for this type of care to be ordered.
Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania may have come up with a solution: Make consultations regarding the need for palliative care a "default" part of hospital care, giving more patients quick access if it's needed.
As explain...
The average cost of hospital care for COVID-19 patients skyrocketed during the pandemic, outstripping what might be expected under inflation, a new study shows.
Average hospital costs for COVID patients increased five times faster than the rate of medical inflation through the first two years of the pandemic, researchers have found.
This is at least partly due to the pricey medical ...
When hospitals support trauma survivors' mental health during and after treatment, patients are less likely to return in crisis, researchers report.
There's no uniform guidance on how to offer mental health services to these patients, noted lead study author Laura Prater.
Fewer hospital readmissions are a good sign that people's menta...
A person's toothbrush could be a true lifesaver if they land in a hospital ICU, according to new evidence review.
Regular toothbrushing is associated with lower rates of death in the intensive care unit (ICU), shorter lengths of stay, and shorter times spent on a mechanical ventilator, researchers report in the Dec. 18 issue of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
That's bec...
Nurses are less likely to discharge still-recovering Black patients to home health care than white patients, a new study has found.
About 22% of Black patients are referred to home health care by discharge nurses, compared with 27% of white patients, according to a report published in the January issue of the journal
Health care workers at America's nursing homes are woefully under-vaccinated for both flu and COVID-19, threatening their own health and that of the frail elderly patients under their care, a new report finds.
Looking at 2023 data collected at nearly 14,000 nursing homes nationwide, researchers found that that fewer than one in every four (22.9%) health care workers had received up-to-dat...
Black and Hispanic Americans might be receiving worse hospital care following cardiac arrest than Whites do, a new study reports.
Only about 20% of Blacks and 22% of Hispanics admitted to a hospital after initially surviving cardiac arrest had a positive outcome, researchers found. The rest either died or suffered brain damage.
By comparison, nearly 34% of Whites had a positive outc...
Advisors to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have voted to recommend that health providers wear masks during routine care for patients who are thought to be contagious.
Still, health care workers were frustrated that the draft recommendation does not specify what kind of mask should be worn -- loose-fitting surgical masks or fitted, tightly woven N95 masks.
The CD...
Advisors to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected to approve new draft guidelines for hospital infection control this week, the first update since 2007.
But healthcare workers worry whether the guidelines, which suggest that surgical masks are as good as N-95 masks at preventing the spread of respiratory infections during routine care, are protecting a hospital'...
A new study on Clostridioides difficile infections finds that choosing an alternative antibiotic for high-risk patients with pneumonia can reduce infection risk.
C. diff infections can be deadly, and they are often acquired by hospitalized patients taking broad-spectrum antibiotics.
More than 450,000 C. diff infections are reported in the United States eac...
Health workers are experiencing ever-increasing levels of harassment and burnout in the wake of the pandemic, a new federal survey has found.
Reports of harassment on the job more than doubled during the pandemic years, and nearly half of health care workers often experience feelings of burnout, according to survey results published Oct. 24 in a new
Drawing smaller amounts of blood from patients in the intensive care unit could lead to fewer blood transfusions, according to new research.
The large clinical trial in Canada found that making this small change could save tens of thousands of units of blood each year in that country.
"While the amount of blood drawn per tube is relatively small, ICU patients typically require mult...
When Hannah, a California marketing professional, showed up at her local emergency room in March 2023 for a pregnancy-related complication, she wasn't prepared for what happened next.
"I arrived at 2 p.m. and finally saw the obstetrics team at midnight,"she recalled.
After an exam, doctors scheduled her for a procedure on the following day, but there wasn't a room available. "I end...
The life-threatening infection sepsis was more common than once thought among COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic.
Massachusetts researchers linked SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, to about 1 in 6 sepsis cases at five Boston hospitals during the pandemic's first 2-1/2 years.
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital said their findings suggest health care workers sho...
It seemed to some that patients of color were being restrained in the emergency room more often than others, so researchers decided to investigate.
While physical restraints can be used to keep staff and patients safe, they may also cause injury to the patient, including aspiration, physical trauma and psychological harm.
A new study bears out what the team from Baylor College of Me...
A deadly infection associated with hospitalization may not be the fault of the hospital, but may instead stem from the patients themselves, a new study suggests.
Infection caused by the bacterium Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff, is still common in hospitals, despite extensive infection control procedures. The new research may help explain why that's so.
Among mor...
How big is a hospital bed's carbon footprint?
Pretty big, new research shows.
One hospital bed alone was roughly equivalent to the carbon footprint of five Canadian households, according to researchers studying a British Columbia hospital during 2019. They identified energy and water use and the purchasing of medical products as the hospital's primary energy hotspots, accounting fo...
Much has been made of how a lack of English proficiency can interfere with a patient's ability to interact with their doctor and get the best health care possible.
But language barriers can prevent cancer patients from even getting in the door for a first visit with a specialist, a new study reports.
English speakers calling a general information line at U.S. hospitals succeeded nea...
When people suffering a stroke need a transfer to another hospital, time is of the essence. But a new study finds that most Americans in that situation face delays.
The study, published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at the issue of "door-in, door-out"...
More than 1 out of every 10 patients who land in an ICU with a potentially deadly heart emergency test positive for recreational drug use, a new French study reports.
About 11% of nearly 1,500 patients admitted to a French intensive cardiac care unit for a heart crisis tested positive for cannabis, opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine or other illicit drugs, researchers said in the journal <...
America's emergency rooms are being flooded by children suffering from psychiatric emergencies like anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts or attempts, a new joint report from three leading medical associations warns.
This surge in pediatric mental health emergencies has overwhelmed ERs in the United States, says the joint paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American ...
New hospitalizations for Americans with severe COVID are climbing once again.
The number of patients being admitted to hospitals has grown for each of the past four weeks, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. Southeastern states have been hit the hardest.
In...
Emergency rooms can be a frightening place for people suffering from dementia, yet each year 1.4 million Americans with Alzheimer's or other dementias wind up in crowded, noisy ERs, a new study finds.
Dementia is responsible for nearly 7% of all ER visits for those older than 65, often because of accidents or mental health crises, researchers determined.
"While dementia is thought o...
Tornado damage to a Pfizer drug-making plant in North Carolina is unlikely to trigger drug shortages across the country, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.
"We do not expect there to be any immediate significant impacts on supply, given the products are currently at hospitals and in the distribution system," FDA Commissioner
Depression, suicidal thoughts and other mental health problems sent record numbers of American kids, especially girls, to emergency rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once there, many waited days or even weeks to be admitted to the hospital, a new study reports.
"The system was already stretched to begin with and then the pandemic hit and more people were seeking care," said senior...
"Superbug"infections are increasing in U.S. hospitals, and a coalition of medical groups has now issued a set of updated recommendations to protect patients.
These guidelines are meant to prevent the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA, the authors of the recommendations argue.
MRSA causes about 10% of hospital-associated infections in ...
Many transplant centers routinely practice "list-diving,"when the top candidate among potential organ recipients is skipped in favor of someone further down the list, new research shows.
The top candidate is ranked that way based on an objective algorithm using age, waiting time and other factors, while choosing someone else happens with little oversight or transparency. And that may harm...
New York University doctors and hospital executives are using an artificial intelligence (AI) computer program to predict whether a newly discharged patient will soon fall sick enough to be readmitted.
The AI program "NYUTron"reads physicians' notes to estimate a patient's risk of dying, the potential length of their hospital stay, and other factors important to their care.
Testing ...
Emergency departments aren't perceived as safe for professionals or their patients, according to an international survey from the European Society of Emergency Medicine (EUSEM).
More than 90% of emergency professionals surveyed said they felt at times the number of patients exceeded the capacity the emergency department (ED) had to provide safe care. Overcrowding was a problem, they said...
While the U.S. Veterans Affairs health system has been criticized for long appointment wait times and limited access to specialists, the quality of care and access to a range of surgical services is as good as or better than at non-VA health centers on several measures, new research reveals.
"Surgery involves many steps of care,"said lead study author
Denying a woman an emergency abortion and risking her life broke U.S. federal law, a federal government investigation contends.
The woman, who went into premature labor after her water broke at 17 weeks was denied the lifesaving procedure last August at two hospitals that are now the center of an investigation: Freeman Health System in Joplin, Mo., and University of Kansas Hospital in Kan...
Patients hospitalized with pneumonia typically stay on IV antibiotics until they're stable, after about three days, but a new study suggests a different option.
Researchers report that more patients who have community-acquired pneumonia could switch sooner to oral antibiotics. Antibiotics given as pills were also linked with earlier release from the hospital. They were not associated with...