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Maryland Hospital Fined For Not Reporting Errors
Regulators have fined a hospital in Lanham, Maryland, for not reporting errors. The Washington Post reports that "Doctors Community Hospital in Prince George"s County has been fined by Maryland health regulators after failing to notify them that a patient had died and that at least seven others suffered serious harm last year as a result of mistakes by the medical staff. The 185-bed medical surgical hospital in Lanham paid the $30,000 fine last month for violating a Maryland law that requires hospitals to report serious medical errors. State officials agreed to reduce a proposed penalty of $95,000 as long as the hospital uses the remaining $65,000 to develop a patient safety program."
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Federal Program Cracks Down On Medicare Fraud In Houston
A federal program targets Medicare fraud in the Houston area as news of three cases representing at least $35 million in false claims emerged within the past week. The Houston Chronicle reports on the three cases, noting: "These Houston-area scams alleged in two FBI complaints and one Montgomery County indictment were among six reported nationally in a single week - representing at least $285 million in false billings, records showed. "This is an astounding amount," said Houston"s FBI spokeswoman Pat Villafranca. The $285 million is more than four times the amount stolen during robberies of U.S. banks during all of 2008, she said. This month, Houston became the fourth metropolitan area - joining Miami, Los Angeles and Detroit - to create a ramped-up fraud strike force. It goes by the acronym "HEAT," Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team."
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New Data Demonstrate Advanced Features Of Hydrofiber(R) Technology
Researchers with ConvaTec Wound Therapeutics presented a series of in vitro studies demonstrating the advanced features and fluid handling capacity of the company"s proprietary dressings containing Hydrofiber® Technology this week at the 19th Conference of the European Wound Management Association.
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Poorly Performing IVF Clinics Should Be Closed

BioNews publishes a controversial editorial by Dr Gedis Grudzinskas, Director of Fertility Focus Professional Services. If the same standards were applied to ivf centres as cardiac surgery, one in five ivf centres in the uk would be closed immediately. With the HFEA about to publish its annual report, which includes not only how well IVF units have done in terms of babies born, comparing one centre to another but also an opportunity to see how they have performed year to year, Gedis Grudzinskas questions the viability of centres that under perform. Should they be permitted to continue and to do so unnoticed? Having been Medical Director and Person Responsible of at least two of the largest UK IVF centres in both the public and private sectors, I am aware of the different quality of care in IVF centres. While one could argue that this does not affect patients" lives in the same way as cardiac surgery, it is nonetheless vitally important to those patients who are seeking IVF treatment and clearly hoping for a positive outcome. When one studies this problem, it quickly becomes clear that there are centres which are performing at an international level as well as other centres whose outcome data is at least half, if not a third of that reported by the IVF centres in the top tenth centile of the 70+ IVF centres in the UK. It is disappointing to note that wide variations in outcome between the top and bottom performing units continue to be tolerated and perhaps ignored by the regulators and commissioners. Little attempt is made to share good practice and guide the underperforming units out of their unsatisfactory situation. Anecdotally, centres that obtain advice from an external agent/re (be it scientific, clinical or a combination of both) invariably see an improvement in outcome data, even before all the recommendations made by the outside agent/re are implemented. Why do underperforming centres not seek advice? If they do not, one could present a case for regulatory sanctions until such time as they do. Underperforming centres continue to receive public funding and are patronised by fee-paying patients. A few clinical leaders are proactive enough to seek independent advice as to how to fill any gaps in the safety and effectiveness of their IVF procedures. A change in attitude is necessary to improve IVF care in this country and reduce the wide variations in quality of care across the sector. As was once said, "I am not sure that standards will improve if we change but I am certain that we need to change if standards are to improve!". Notes Gedis Grudzinskas, is a Director of Fertility Focus Professional Services (FFPS is an expert unaffiliated, independent, multi-disciplinary, international network of infertility specialists). He works as a consultant in Gynaecology and Infertility, based at 92 Harley Street, London W1G 7HU BioNews


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