Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web.

Iowa News

Culver looks to D.C. for help in reducing budget burden
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver is looking for more help from the federal government to patch up education and health care spending. Culver asked a Senate appropriations subcommittee on Thursday for a second round of economic stimulus money. Later, he appealed to the Obama administration to ease rules for existing aid that could force the state to reverse some spending cuts. (Des Moines Register)

Few line up for H1N1 vaccine
In the past week, H1N1 flu clinics organized by the county health department and University of Northern Iowa received under-whelming responses. “I think there’s a general complacency, a general thinking that seasonal influenza is over, it’s behind us,” said Bruce Meisinger, Black Hawk County’s disease surveillance manager. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

Genesis reinstates standard visitation policies
Genesis Medical Center campuses in Davenport, DeWitt, Iowa, and Silvis, Ill., will reinstate standard visitation policies beginning Friday. The vaccination of a significant number of people in the region against the H1N1 flu and seasonal influenza has helped make it possible for Genesis to return to its standard visitation policy, hospital officials said. (Quad-City Times)

Mercy Medical Center print shop to close
Mercy Medical Center plans to disband its eight-person print shop in March, officials say. Mike Krysl, Mercy marketing and communications director, said the hospital’s leadership decided the closure is in the best interests of the organization, which is focusing on services directly related to patient care. (Sioux City Journal)

U.S. News

New Nebraska hospitals could get more scrutiny
A bill has been introduced that calls for a two-year moratorium on applications and licenses for new hospitals beginning Sept. 1 and going through Aug. 31, 2012. The moratorium wouldn’t include Critical Access Hospitals. (Lincoln Journal Star)

Democrats are urged to preserve broad health care overhaul
Even as congressional Democrats began examining ways to scale back their far-reaching health legislation, a wave of consumer groups, patient advocates and doctors on Thursday called on Democrats not to abandon the comprehensive health overhaul they’ve worked so long to pass. (Los Angeles Times)

Poll: Regroup on health care, most say
A majority of Americans say President Obama and congressional Democrats should suspend work on the health care bill that has been on the verge of passage and consider alternatives that would draw more Republican support, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. (USA Today)

Why do we give to disaster relief?
Children are selling pink lemonade in Austin, Texas. A Minnesota couple is giving away money that they saved for their wedding. Chelsea Clinton hosted a spinning class in New York on Thursday with front-row “seats” going for $1,000. So, why do we open our wallets for strangers, like Haitian earthquake survivors? Is it out of empathy? Guilt? Compassion? Or something else? (CNN)

As records go digital, cultures clash
A group of Broward County doctors looking to switch to electronic medical records say the result has been a massive headache: surprise charges, inadequate training and even blocked access to patient files. For his part, vendor Joe Castranova says that the doctors got exactly what they signed up for and that some still owe him money. He’s turned some of them over to collections. (Kaiser Health News)