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

Iowa News

From hospital social worker to citizen soldier
Dan Grinstead, a social worker at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, felt he needed to do something more to help soldiers dealing with the social and mental hardships of war – so at age 57, he joined the Army National Guard. Now he is about to celebrate his 60^th birthday as he prepares to be deployed with his Iowa unit. (NBC News)

Iowa’s debt sparks debate
Iowa’s debt load has been a battleground the past week for Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and Republican critics in the aftermath of a Moody’s report measuring debt in all 50 states. Culver boasted the report showed Iowa’s “net tax-supported debt” was second-lowest in the country. At $219 million, it amounts to about $73 per Iowan. That sparked outrage from Republicans, who first said the report didn’t include I-JOBS debt. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

FEMA urges Iowans to apply for aid
The Federal Emergency and Management Administration said Monday individual assistance may now be available to eligible residents and business owners affected by recent flooding and severe storms in the 32 counties with a federal disaster declaration. Three counties were added to federal disaster designation on Monday: Polk, Jasper and Mahaska counties. (KCCI)

U.S. News

What happens to liability costs when a hospital admits errors?
As reported today in the Annals of Internal Medicine, during the period in which such a program was implemented at the University of Michigan Health System, legal costs went down, as did the number of new claims for compensation, the number of claims compensated and the time it took to resolve a claim. But whether costs and the number of claims declined as a result of the new policy isn’t clear. (Wall Street Journal)

Economy led to cuts in use of health care
The economic crisis in the United States has reduced the use of routine medical care, and the cutbacks here are much deeper than in countries with universal health care systems, researchers say in a new report. (New York Times)

Poll: 83 percent say health care very important in midterms
Health care remains a key concern for voters ahead of the November midterms, a new CNN poll says, even if the issue is less potent than jobs and the economy. Eighty-three percent of respondents said healthcare was “extremely” or “very” important in determining their vote for Congress. Only five other issues — the economy, unemployment, the deficit, terrorism and government ethics — were deemed more important. (The Hill)

Insurer mounts offensive and defensive strategies on health law
In the increasingly tense wrangling between the insurance industry and state regulators over the definition of what spending can qualify as medical care under the new health law, one of the loudest lobbying voices is a relatively small player: Cigna Corp. (Kaiser Health News)

New Hampshire releases first hospital infection report
The report, the result of a 2006 state law, examined infections during 2009 that developed from central lines — catheters inserted in blood vessels near the heart or other major vessel — and their insertion practices. The report also looked at infections that developed after heart, colon and knee surgeries, and at influenza vaccination rates among hospital staff. Officials said the number infected overall was 26 percent lower than expected, based on national data from 2006 to 2008. (Manchester Union Leader)

Privacy and security of patient records: The lesson of the weakest link
With the ink barely dry on the meaningful use final rule, and the usual suspects lined up for and against the proliferation of EHRs, it seems clear that the use of electronic health records would have eliminated the problem of plain text paper records flapping in the wind at the Georgetown town dump. However, their use would not have eliminated the problem of covered entity and contractor bad judgment, if that is in fact the issue in this case. (The Health Care Blog)

Report: Cancer is the world’s costliest disease
Cancer is the world’s top “economic killer” as well as its likely leading cause of death, the American Cancer Society contends in a new report it will present at a global cancer conference in China this week. Cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread person-to-person, the report concludes. (Associated Press)