My lede:

Some hospitals have virtually eliminated deadly catheter-related bloodstream infections by implementing a checklist of simple preventive measures, yet an initiative to spread the success nationwide has run into some resistance.

A project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, On the CUSP: Stop BSI, has attracted the participation of at least 400 hospitals in 27 states. The project seeks to build on the success in Michigan, where intensive care units at more than 100 hospitals cut their median central-line infection rate to zero per 1,000 catheter days, compared with a national average of 5.2.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

It was bad enough that Seattle Grace Hospital intern Isobel “Izzie” Stevens, MD, fell in love with a patient in need of a heart transplant. But she really crossed the ethical line when she cut the wires to his left ventricular assist device so his health would deteriorate and he’d move higher on the United Network for Organ Sharing waiting list.

That behavior — portrayed by actress Katherine Heigl on the hit ABC TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” — is probably the most outrageous example of scores of unethical medical actions shown on “Grey’s” and Fox TV’s “House,” according to a study in the April Journal of Medical Ethics.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

Medical journal editors should require independent analysis of industry-sponsored trial data by an academic statistician before publishing results, according to an editorial published in the March 24/31 Journal of the American Medical Association.

The call comes in response to internal GlaxoSmithKline documents revealed as part of a February Senate Finance Committee report investigating the company’s handling of data related to its diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone).

The whole shebang.

My lede:

Robert O. Bonow, MD, graduated from medical school in 1973. Caitlin Schaninger will graduate in June. Despite training in different generations, they see similar gaps in quality and safety education.

Much has changed in medical education in the nearly four decades that separate their medical school experiences.

What has remained largely unchanged is the lack of education most medical school graduates receive in the science and skills of quality improvement and patient safety — how to deliver the right care to the right patient at the right time, and how to prevent a patient from being harmed.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

Most of the attention given to the health reform law has focused on its sweeping changes to the insurance system. But the law also could dramatically change the way that care is delivered, according to experts on patient safety and quality.

For example, the overhaul uses pay bonuses and penalties to physicians and hospitals to incentivize the care coordination and safety interventions that can help prevent nosocomial infections and unnecessary hospital readmissions. It also requires an unprecedented level of public reporting on hospital and physician quality performance, and could hasten implementation of care improvement practices, experts said.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

The health system reforms signed into law in March will cover an estimated 32 million uninsured patients by 2019. But there may not be enough physicians to care for them.

The nation likely will see a shortage of about 160,000 physicians by 2025 — leaving too few to keep up with the flood of newly insured patients seeking care for long-neglected health problems.

“It’s sort of a race against time,” said Edward Salsberg, director of the Assn. of American Medical Colleges’ Center for Workforce Studies, whose 2025 physician supply estimate includes a shortage of 46,000 primary care physicians and 41,000 general surgeons, even after accounting for the supply of international medical graduates.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

Physicians who receive nearly any kind of payment of $10 or more from a drugmaker, device maker or other medical industry firm will see the information listed on a publicly searchable Web site starting Sept. 30, 2013.

The “sunshine” provisions of the health system overhaul President Obama signed into law in March also apply to teaching hospitals and are aimed at curbing industry’s influence on medical decision-making.

The whole shebang.