Hospitals in Connecticut charge vastly different amounts of money for the same procedure – sometimes triple the price — according to data released Wednesday by federal Medicare officials. Continue Reading →
Connecticut Lags In Kids’ Mental Health Screening; Reforms Considered
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Selenia Velez remembers the near-daily phone calls from the pre-school, alerting her that her 2-year-old son had acted out aggressively and needed to be picked up immediately. The calls went on for months, as Velez, 27, of Hartford, and her husband bounced between the pre-school and their son’s pediatrician, who recommended that they take him to a psychiatrist for an evaluation. But the psychiatrist was booked and held them at bay, as Velez watched her son’s behavior deteriorate. “We just felt hopeless,” the mother of four recalls of her oldest son, now 7. “It was one of the most heartbreaking things you can go through as a mother. I was scared of him – I just didn’t know what was going on – and no one had answers.”
Seniors Sue Medicare To Close Nursing Home Coverage Gap
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Roberta Baxter, a 78-year-old retired instructional assistant for the Killingly school system, dislocated her kneecap after a fall in her bathroom last September. Following treatment at a local hospital, she spent seven weeks at a nursing home for rehab so that she could walk again. While she was recovering, she and her husband Bill received the first of several bills from the nursing home. That’s when the couple learned Medicare wouldn’t cover the $16,000 cost because Roberta didn’t spend at least three consecutive days in the hospital as admitted patient, or inpatient, as Medicare requires. Instead, the four days she spent in the hospital was for “observation care.”
“I thought it was surely a mistake,” she said. “Nobody ever said I wasn’t admitted.”
Filed under: I-Team In-Depth, 'observation care' Judith Stein, Center for Medicare Advocacy, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal lawsuit, Lee Barrows, Mary T. Berthelot, Medicare
Unhealthy Mercury Levels Persist In Our Waterways And Fish
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Wethersfield resident Patrice Gilbert knew that compact fluorescent bulbs contained mercury, so as they burned out, she put them aside until she could find out where to properly dispose of them. One day, she accidently knocked one off the counter and it broke. “I scooped that broken one up, put the other three in a paper bag, put that in a plastic bag and put it in my recycling bin,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do with them.”
Gilbert’s action is typical. Nationally, only an estimated 2 percent of household CFLs are recycled properly, the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers says. In Connecticut, only 4 percent of households participate in hazardous waste collection days – where mercury-containing CFLs, thermostats and thermometers should be recycled. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Environmental Health, I-Team In-Depth, Amos Lake, Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers, Bashan Lake, Beach Pond, Dr. Mark Mitchell, Environmental Health Task Force
Hospitals Mobilize To Tackle Alarm Fatigue
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At Bridgeport Hospital, “talking bed rails” programmed to speak to patients in the geriatric psychiatric unit are helping to reduce the number of alarms that sound when a patient at risk for falling tries to get out of bed. At the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain, health care professionals are adopting techniques from aviation safety experts to reduce the chances of a catastrophic event happening before a clinical alarm goes off. These are among the many ways Connecticut hospitals are tackling a phenomenon known industry-wide as alarm fatigue. Continue Reading →
Filed under: I-Team In-Depth, alarm fatigue, Bridgeport Hospital, Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, Connecticut Hospital Association, Dr. Mary Cooper, Dr. Ryan O'Connell, Dr. Steven D. Hanks
Whistleblower: VA Withheld Health Studies On Soldiers’ Toxic Exposures
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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs suppressed information that shows links between health problems of veterans and the dangers they were exposed to in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf War, according to a whistleblower who testified to a House panel Wednesday afternoon. Steven Coughlin described an “epidemic of serious ethical problems” in the VA Office of Public Health, where he worked for 4 ½ years as a senior epidemiologist until December. Continue Reading →
