pittsburgh tribune review

The parade of legal settlements involving large health care organizations accused of wrong-doing just gets more and more crowded.  Here is the latest, courtesy the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

As we predicted (here), the new reporting requirements imposed on US not-for-profit organizations are beginning to yield interesting results about the coziness of the leadership of some health care organizations. 

Western Pennsylvania

For example, we start with an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about hospitals in western Pennsylvania.

Last year we noted that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) required more detailed reporting starting in 2009 by US not-for-profit organizations.  Many US health insurance companies/ managed care organizations, most hospitals, nearly all medical associations, nearly all disease advocacy organizations, all health care charities, and nearly all medical schools are not-for-profit organizations.  We suggested then that this reporting might lead to more transparency abo

At "Bungled Brachytherapy, Computer Interfaces and Other Mysteries At The Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital" at this link I reported on serious problems involving brachytherapy treatment of prostate cancer at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia.

One of the issues involved computer problems, in the form of failure to network a key computer involved in treatment evaluation.

The march of legal settlements and guilty pleas by health care organizations just keeps going.  The most recent participants were:

Sacks Medical Corp

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported:

A Butler County drug company pleaded guilty in federal court in Pittsburgh to international money laundering and violating federal drug laws in an investigation that involved the now-defunct Monsour Medical Center Research Institute.

This curious story appeared about apparent clinician health IT safety concerns at Jefferson Regional Medical Center near Pittsburgh:

Switch to electronic records alarms Jefferson Regional physicians

By Walter F.

Roche Jr.
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, October 30, 2009

Sometimes you just cannot make this stuff up. Here are extracts of a story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

U.S.

House members on Tuesday admonished Veterans Affairs officials from Pittsburgh for ordering the destruction of thousands of Legionella samples even as a researcher was attempting to save the 'irreplaceable' collection.