New numbers have recently come out, highlighting how low the adoption rate is for electronic medical records in hospitals.

As reported by MedPage Today, the study from the NEJM found that only 1.5 percent of hospitals surveyed had comprehensive electronic medical record systems. That’s a piss-poor adoption rate, and far lower than the dismal numbers in small office practices.

The reasons cited are no surprise to regular readers (more…)

Hospitals and physician practices may be feeling the impact of the economic downturn, as more hospitals manage to stay afloat with declining revenues and more need for their services. You guessed it, as more people get laid off, the more burden they place on the health care system, since the first place to go when one has no health insurance is the emergency room. Furthermore, those elective procedures like gastric (more…)

The fallout from California’s balance billing ban is about to get much, much worse.

A patient is suing an emergency physician group for the $57 he spent last year on the balance bill he had to pay for services his insurance didn’t cover.

If successful, the results for already near-bankrupt hospitals are chilling, as “hospitals and ER doctors could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in collective refunds to patients.”
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Given the financial trouble many ERs and hospitals are facing, concierge emergency care may be on the horizon.

Richard Winters (via GruntDoc) imagines such as scenario, which for a fee, patients receive private rooms, couches and chairs for family, private telephones and internet service, flat-screen television, and events to meet the hospital administration and physicians.

As long as every cent continues to be squeezed out of (more…)

Want to give birth at a Hello Kitty-themed hospital?

You can in Taiwan, where “patients enjoy the iconic feline theme on everything from baby blankets, nurse uniforms, and a statue of the cat dressed like a doctor.”

In case you can’t get enough of the medical setting, you can always eat at one of these high-end hospital-themed restaurants (via Pallimed), located in Latvia and Singapore.

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