Hospitals

The physical therapy workouts a rehabilitation facility offers can be a crucial part of healing, doctors say. But a government study finds preventable harm — including bedsores and medication errors — occurring in some of those facilities, too.

Rehab Hospitals May Harm A Third Of Patients, Report Finds

11:35am July 21, 2016

by Marshall Allen

Patients sent to rehabilitation facilities to recover from medical crises or surgery too often suffer additional harm from the care they get there, according to research by U.S. health officials.

The Denver microhospital has just eight inpatient beds.

Microhospitals May Help Deliver Care In Underserved Areas

1:40pm July 19, 2016

by Michelle Andrews

Hospital systems are building tiny full-service hospitals in urban and suburban markets. They have a full array of emergency services, but only a handful of beds for admitted patients.

Hannah Birch and David Sleight/Propublica

Doctors At Southern Hospitals Take The Most Payments From Drug, Device Companies

7:44pm June 29, 2016

A hospital's location and whether it is for-profit make a big difference in the share of its doctors taking industry payments like meals, travel and speaking fees. Check out the ProPublica analysis.

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Glenn Baker, 44, stands in his South Side apartment that is paid for by a program of the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago.

A Hospital Offers Frequent ER Patients An Out — Free Housing

6:22pm June 29, 2016

by Miles Bryan

Glenn Baker is what hospitals call a superutilizer, coming into the ER again and again with multiple health issues made worse by homelessness. So a Chicago hospital decided to offer him a home.

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Ten-year-old Matthew Husby gets some low-tech comfort from his father after surgery at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.

Doctors Get Creative To Soothe Tech-Savvy Kids Before Surgery

5:05pm June 29, 2016

by Jenny Gold

Surgery can be emotionally and physically stressful for children. A California anesthesiologist has come up with a way to reduce anxiety that's safer, cheaper and much more entertaining.

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Scrubbing up with running water is simply not possible in some hospitals.

It's Not Easy Running A Hospital Without Running Water

5:08pm June 23, 2016

by Marc Silver

A third of hospitals surveyed in low- and middle-income countries report they do not have running water all the time. And sometimes not at all.

When it comes to the end of life, hospital stays are more intensive and more expensive than alternatives.

Health & Safety

Dying In A Hospital Means More Procedures, Tests And Costs

1:25pm June 15, 2016

by Alison Kodjak

Hospital deaths are more expensive and intrusive than deaths at home, in hospice care or even in nursing homes. Financial incentives favor more care, even when it's not always wanted.

Did revised federal standards make transplant centers more averse to risk and encourage them to drop sicker patients who might affect the hospitals' patient survival rates?

Federal Standard May Be Thwarting Some Liver Transplant Patients

11:38am June 07, 2016

by Michelle Andrews

Researchers report that performance standards set by federal health officials may have led to many patients being dropped from transplant lists without an improvement in survival rates.

Children who get more sleep while in the hospital need less sedation and anesthesia, researchers have found.

Bright Lights, Big Hassles For Children In The Hospital

12:41pm June 02, 2016

by Shefali Luthra

The pokes and prods inflicted on children in the hospital at all hours can make it hard for them to get a decent night's sleep. Children's hospitals are now rethinking how they work at night.

You may share everything with your parents, but health care providers might not be so open.

Parents May Be Refused Details Of Adult Children's Medical Care

2:27pm May 31, 2016

by Michelle Andrews

Federal and state laws are designed to protect the privacy of patients' health information. But sometimes leaving parents of adult children out of the loop can complicate the patient's recovery.