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

Iowa News

Malpractice cases drop, but views on why differ
Iowa patients are suing their doctors for malpractice half as often as they used to, which has helped drive down malpractice-insurance premiums for many physicians. Doctors speculate that malpractice lawsuits are becoming rarer because they have cut down on medical mistakes. But plaintiffs’ lawyers say they’re filing fewer cases because it’s become more expensive to press lawsuits. (Des Moines Register)

Hospitals’ ‘self-tax’ may cut Iowa’s Medicaid deficit
Iowa has to overcome an estimated $187 million Medicaid funding deficit to balance its 2010-11 budget, and it soon may get some help from Mary Greeley Medical Center and other Iowa hospitals. State Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, said Thursday the Iowa Legislature is considering a proposal by the Iowa Hospital Association to let the state tax its hospitals, increase payments to Medicaid providers and trigger more federal Medicaid dollars in the process. (Ames Tribune)

Locals coordinate Haiti relief effort
The collection of supplies is part of an overall effort by University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics doctors and husband-and-wife team Chris Buresh and Ginny Ryan Buresh to help survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 100,000 people and devastated the capital city of Port-au-Prince and surrounding communities. Chris Buresh, an emergency room doctor, had just returned from Haiti on Jan. 9, but was soon on a plane back after the earthquake struck, with plans to return home this weekend. (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Hospital CEO named 2009 Le Mars Citizen of the Year
Mike Donlin, CEO of Floyd Valley Hospital in Le Mars, was honored as the 2009 Citizen of the Year at the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner Saturday at the Le Mars Convention Center. (Le Mars Daily Sentinel)

Procedure heartening for local man
Ivan Yoose became one of the first Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque patients to benefit from a procedure called carotid stenting. Carotid artery stenting is a non-surgical, catheter-based procedure to unblock the narrowing of the carotid artery in the neck. Mercy first performed the procedure last summer. Patients previously had to travel to Iowa City for carotid stenting. (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)

Hospitals battle for babies
Babies are big business, and the battle for them is growing like the tummy of a mom expecting triplets — especially between Methodist Health System and Alegent Health. (Omaha World-Herald)

U.S. News

Harkin: Health deal was reached days before Brown’s Senate victory
The latest revelation shows how agonizingly close Democrats came to passing a final healthcare bill in time for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. But Sen.-Elect Brown’s stunning victory on Jan. 19 gave Republicans control of 41 seats in the Senate, enough to sustain a GOP filibuster of the healthcare bill. (The Hill)

Democrats quietly working to resuscitate healthcare overhaul
President Obama’s campaign to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system is officially on the back burner as Democrats turn to the task of stimulating job growth, but behind the scenes party leaders have nearly settled on a strategy to salvage the massive legislation. (Los Angeles Times)

No such thing as ‘simple’ health reform
Even before Senator-elect Scott Brown’s stunning victory in the Massachusetts special election, there was no shortage of advice on simpler approaches to health reform that the president and his Congressional allies could have used in place of the bills now before Congress. Although the current reform bills undoubtedly are burdened with many tangential items, health care economist Uwe Reinhardt says it’s easy to underestimate how quickly any kind of health reform will become complex. (New York Times)

Donors fly Haitian kids to U.S. hospital
Among the evacuees was 5-year-old Betina Joseph, who has a critical case of tetanus. A child with burns and one with pneumonia were also evacuated. Both were sent to hospitals in Philadelphia, said Nery Ynclan, the spokeswoman for the University of Miami field hospital, which has a 250-bed facility in Port-au-Prince. The impasse with the U.S. military still stands, she said, “but the hospital in Philly pulled some strings” to get the children out. The three children were taken out on flights paid for by private donors. (Miami Herald)