How Rural Hospitals Are Preparing for Coronavirus

In the DC Comics town of Metropolis, the townsfolk had Superman to protect them from villains like Lex Luthor, Brainiac and Darkseid. But in real-life Metropolis, Ill. (pop. 6,133), there is no larger-than-life superhero. There’s a 15-foot-tall statue … Continue reading

Retired Doctors Return to Work for COVID-19

Tired of 60- to 70-hour work weeks, Dr. Debra Caroli planned on retiring April 1, 2020. She recently decided to embrace part-time employment instead of working full-time as an anesthesiologist in Leesburg, Fla. Then came COVID-19. “Even if I was going … Continue reading

Staying Mobile in the Hospital Helps to Get Better and Get Out

(Editor’s note: This story is part of a series for The John A. Hartford Foundation.) In her work as the chief nursing officer for Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Md., Barbara Jacobs recently found herself dodging all of the patients walking d… Continue reading

Delirium Isn’t ‘Just Part of Getting Older’

(Editor’s note: This story is part of a series for The John A. Hartford Foundation.) As many as half of hospital patients age 65 and older develop delirium. Once thought of as something ordinary — something that “just happens” to people as they get old… Continue reading

How Quality Home Health Care Helps Rural Hospitals Survive

(This article previously appeared on the Kaiser Health News site.) Rural hospitals close when they don’t have enough paying patients to care for, but they’re also dinged when the same patients show up over and over again. That puts outlying medical fac… Continue reading

Making a Safe Transition From Hospital to Rehab

If you have a parent or other loved one who will soon be released from the hospital after an injury or surgery, he or she might not yet be well enough to return home, even with the assistance of in-home care. That likely will mean a transition to a sho… Continue reading

Geriatric ERs Provide Better Care for Older Patients

Suffering from frail health in her 70s, Dr. Mark Rosenberg’s mother had to make repeated trips to the emergency room of a South Florida hospital. It was loud and chaotic, and seeing trauma victims and people with drug overdoses added to her distress. “… Continue reading

Can Bundled Medical Payments Save You Money?

Two of the most upsetting things for patients are the high cost of health care and the surprise — sometimes indecipherable, sometimes nonstop — hospital bills. But something known as “bundled medical payments” might relieve both of those and possibly p… Continue reading

How to Improve Hospitals: Ask Patients and Families

Here’s a novel idea to help make hospitals more person-centered: include patients and their families in the key decisions for the medical centers, from strategy to operations. Nutty, right? Well, actually, this is an idea that’s slowly starting to catc… Continue reading

Soon, You’ll Be Able to See Hospital Prices Online

(This article previously appeared on PolicyGenius.com.) Patients will be able to see a list of a hospital’s standard charges online starting Jan. 1, under guidelines proposed by the Trump administration. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services… Continue reading