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

Iowa News

Loebsack gets bird’s eye view of health care services
Sometimes when U.S. Rep Dave Loebsack does a “Take Your Congressman to Work” day he actually gets his hands dirty. “But I’m just learning today,” Loebsack said Sept. 3 from the back seat of the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics’ AirCare helicopter as it circled 1,500 feet above Iowa City. (Mason City Globe Gazette)

Restaurant provides Labor Day lunch a local hospital
While many folks have the day off, it’s important to remember those who have to work on Labor Day. That’s why Olive Garden served lunch to ER workers, police, firefighters and military men and women on Monday. In Sioux City, employees catered lunch to the workers at the Mercy Medical Center emergency room this afternoon. (KCAU)

U.S. News

Health care wastefulness is detailed in studies
In a snapshot of systemic waste, researchers have calculated that more than half of the 354 million doctor visits made each year for acute medical care, like for fevers, stomachaches and coughs, are not with a patient’s primary physician, and that more than a quarter take place in hospital emergency rooms. (New York Times)

Patients’ choices may narrow as insurers adjust standards for doctors, hospitals
While a new push by insurers on quality implies that consumers will get better care because doctors and hospitals will be measured against the best performers, there may be an unintended consequence: It could leave patients with fewer choices of medical care providers, depending on which health plans they purchase. (Chicago Tribune)

Duluth nurses set date for strike: Sept. 14
They will strike on Sept. 14 if a tentative agreement isn’t reached. The Minnesota Nurses Association, representing SMDC’s 958 registered nurses, put the pressure on Friday by delivering their formal 10-day notice to strike. The notice comes after their counterparts at St. Luke’s hospital reached a tentative agreement over similar contract issues. (Duluth News Tribune)

At hospitals, new methods with a focus on diversity
As more immigrants crowd its waiting rooms, Elmhurst Hospital is joining a growing number of hospitals in New York and across the country that are going beyond hiring interpreters and offering translated paperwork and are adopting practices intended to improve care for an increasingly diverse patient population. One of the hospitals is Buena Vista Regional Medical Center in Iowa. (New York Times)

Medicare head pushes health care test sites
Newly installed Medicare chief Donald Berwick, keeping a low public profile after encountering controversy over his appointment, is moving quickly behind the scenes to seed the US health care system with 100 to 300 sites to test new models of caring for patients. (Boston Globe)

Battle royal over health care repeal if GOP wins
Even if Republicans succeed beyond any current predictions and capture both the Senate and the House, they wouldn’t have enough GOP votes to overcome President Barack Obama’s veto. But Republicans could still fall back on the congressional power of the purse, denying the administration billions of dollars to carry out the most far-reaching social legislation since Medicare and Medicaid. (Associated Press)

Medicare rules give full hospital benefits only to those with ‘inpatient’ status
Observation services include short-term treatment and tests to help doctors decide if the patient should be admitted for inpatient treatment. Medicare’s guidance says it should take no more than 24 to 48 hours to make this determination. Yet some hospitals keep patients under observation for days, and that decision can have severe consequences. (Washington Post)

Denver-area hospitals fuel flurry of growth
Denver-area hospitals are moving ahead with a $2 billion building boom that will add hundreds of beds, replace aging structures and boost local employment. There are five expansion or replacement projects underway or planned in the metro area, and another opened last month. A number of smaller medical buildings and campuses also are in development. (Denver Post)

In-room attack shines light on hospital security
After an elderly woman was stabbed last week as she lay in her Aurora hospital bed, officials at suburban Chicago hospitals said it is impossible to prevent every incident but that recent changes in the health care industry should make patients more secure. (Chicago Daily Herald)