Latest California Healthline Stories
Hospitals Say Drug Shortages Harm Patient Care
“Profound shifts in the economics of the pharmaceutical industry” have resulted in shortages of drugs that are commonly used in hospitals, putting patients across the country at risk, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Lawsuit Highlights Pain Management Debate
The three children of a deceased man who “spent most of the final week of his life in severe pain” have sued his former doctor for failing to prescribe adequate pain treatment, marking “one of the first U.S. cases in which a doctor has gone on trial for allegedly undertreating a patient’s pain,” the Washington Post reports.
Times, Chronicle Support Court-Ordered Treatment Bill
A bill (AB 1421) sponsored by Assembly member Helen Thomson (D-Davis) that would allow court-ordered treatment for mentally ill people is “a good first step toward a more balanced public policy,” a Los Angeles Times editorial says, but the bill needs “fine-tuning.”
Health Net Ends Contract With Chaudhuri-Owned Physician Group
In another “blow” to Dr. Kali haudhuri’s “medical empire,” Health Net has decided to move 3,000 members from the Chaudhuri-owned Community Medical Group of Corona, effective June 1, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Davis Announces Grants for Mental Illness, Substance Abuse Programs
As part of his Mental Health Initiative, Gov. Gray Davis (D) last week announced a $1.5 million grant for Sacramento and San Joaquin counties to develop pilot programs to treat people with dual diagnoses of mental illness and substance abuse.
Nurses Dissatisfied in Five Countries, Study Finds
Although U.S. nurses have often “blamed” managed care for contributing to a decline in the quality of patient care, nurses in other countries that have implemented national health plans “share the same frustrations,” a new study in the May/June issue of Health Affairs reveals.
Union ‘Pressures’ Lawmaker to Alter Prison Nurses Bill
A bill (SB 396) that aims to eliminate nurses trained as guards from California prisons is facing “pressure” from the “powerful union” that represents the 1,000 workers who fill this “dual role,” the Fresno Bee reports.
AMA ‘Alarmed’ Over Increased Liability in Patients’ Bill of Rights
Doctors have “suddenly become alarmed” that some proposed patients’ rights legislation “could boomerang and expose them to new lawsuits,” the New York Times reports.
Doctors Plan Class-Action Suit Against HMOs
Lawyers for 80,000 physicians from Texas, California and Georgia are requesting permission to sue eight “major” HMOs in one large class-action suit, as opposed to “thousands” of smaller cases, the Dallas Morning News reports.
CMA, AMA Battle Over Competing Internet Security Systems
The California Medical Association and the American Medical Association are locked in a “high-tech competition” to “provide electronic ‘passports’ or codes to verify the identity of doctors who communicate by e-mail or the Internet,” the Fresno Bee reports.