| AMA rejects report on surgery infection rates | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 3:15:14 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has cast doubts on a report claiming 20 per cent of surgeries performed in Australia result either in infection or other complications which require additional treatment. The report, produced by private health insurer Medibank Private, claims the problems are often caused by medical errors and poor quality prostheses. But AMA president Dr Mukesh Haikerwal says an ulterior motive is at play. "The costs to insurers of prostheses, of things like cardiac stents, are causing them some grief," he said. "Now we've got to do a proper process to make sure that the equipment that we use is properly approved by the TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration], that the value for money is given to the patients.... | |
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| | | State has eye on UC Davis, Sutter organ transplant programs | | Posted Friday, September 01, 2006 3:10:40 AM by Blog57 Team | | LOS ANGELES - Two Sacramento facilities are among four organ transplant programs in California that have been notified they could lose their Medi-Cal funding because they have excessive patient deaths or perform too few surgeries. In letters made public Wednesday, the California Department of Health Services asked the medical institutions to draw up plans to correct the problems. They include the liver transplant units at UC Davis Medical Center and the heart program at Sutter Memorial Hospital. .... | |
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| | | Weight-Loss Surgeries Changing Lives | | Posted Sunday, July 30, 2006 4:58:32 PM by Blog57 Team | | Sisters Lorena Garcia, 39, and Alma Garcia, 41, were well aware of the toll that morbid obesity had taken on their health. Alma was suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and thyroid disease and Lorena had developed degenerative bone disease. When they scheduled their gastric bypass surgeries at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on the same day in February 2006, they joined a growing number of severely overweight Americans who are choosing to have weight-loss surgery as a means of improving their quality of life and reducing their risk for life-threatening conditions such as stroke, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. Ted Khalili, M.D., director of the Center for Weight Loss Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, sees the impact of obesity everyday but now has another perspective on the problem.... | |
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| | | Blood Shortage Halts Elective Surgeries | | Posted Sunday, July 02, 2006 7:00:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | With the holiday weekend approaching, many hospitals across the state said they are in desperate need of blood. A shortage of available blood is causing one hospital to halt elective surgeries altogether. Health officials said this year's blood shortage came sooner and more intensely than in years past. It's so bad that Fayetteville's Cape Fear Medical halted all elective surgeries until the end of the week. Collections have picked up after news of the shortage reached the public, but it still may not be enough. .... | |
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