Hop, Skid, and Dump

3 L.A. Hospitals Take Patients to Skid Row | LAT | 11.25.05

The disclosures come as the city grapples with ‘dumping’ of the indigent downtown.

Three Los Angeles hospitals regularly put discharged patients with nowhere to go into taxicabs bound for skid row, hospital officials acknowledged this week.

Officials at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center said the practice is necessary because skid row is the only place in Southern California with a concentration of social services for the patients, including homeless shelters and drug and alcohol programs.

Los Angeles Police Department officials agreed that the hospitals have few other options. But they said the practice worsens the already grim conditions on skid row. They also disputed the hospitals’ contention that the patients taken to skid row are always ready for release.…

Strains the old saying that any disposition is a good disposition.

Missed by a Month

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• TiVo Plans to Allow Unlimited TV-Show Downloads to iPods
  Since Apple introduced a new iPod that plays video last month, users of the device have been able to buy episodes from only five television series produced by just one media company, Walt Disney Co. Soon, virtually any show that airs on TV will be availab
  (tags: technology podcasting podscoping)

Missed by a month…

Old Dog, New Tricks

EM News Features Medical Bloggers; Yrs. Trly. Focus of Article | GruntDoc | 11.18.05

A couple of months ago I gave an interview about medical blogs for one of the monthly Emergency Medicine magazines.…

It’s terrific blogs in general, and EM blogs in particular, are getting more exposure, and it’s too bad EMNews doesn’t have an online version. (They do have a website, www.EM-News.com, but it’s last-generation stuff, and no real online content. Pity.)

Congratulations! I din’t know Richard Winters was part of the unofficial UC/Fresno Emergency Medicine blogging community (symtym, GruntDoc, richard[WINTERS]md).

Perhaps we can shame the publishers of EM News into joining the media of this millennium. What’s with their excellent print production and their anachronistic web presence—an old dog writing about new tricks?

Rip Mal Practice

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• Med-Mal: Health Policy’s Rip Van Winkle
  If you want a sound-bite to debate, try this one: “The best malpractice reform is universal health coverage.”
  (tags: health_policy health_reform)

Excellent read!

Turing’s Cathedral

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• Turing’s Cathedral
  “When our machines overtook us, too complex and efficient for us to control, they did it so fast and so smoothly and so usefully, only a fool or a prophet would have dared complain.”
  (tags: AI web2.0 google technology)

Microsoft; Hospitals; Trauma; EMS

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• Cuts signal ambulance wreck
  In January, a new government policy will take effect that phases out payments for disposable supplies and oxygen that ambulances routinely use when transporting patients, the industry says. In addition, ambulance companies are expecting cuts in their mile
  (tags: EMS medicare)
• Health Net Gives a Boy Access to Specialist Care After Lawsuit
  The case illustrates how the managed-care model of healthcare — which offers subscribers relatively low premiums in exchange for access to only a limited number of doctors — could make it difficult for patients who need specialized care. Typically suc
  (tags: HMOs physicians)
• Internet Services Crucial, Microsoft Memos Say
  “We will design and license Windows and our Internet-based services as separate products, so customers can choose Windows with or without Microsoft’s services,” Mr. Ozzie wrote, indicating that the services would have software connections so that “competi
  (tags: Microsoft web2.0 webapps AJAX)
• Hospitals vie for trauma center
  Kaiser Permanente and Catholic Healthcare West, competitors in the rapidly growing south Sacramento area, are vying for county approval to open the region’s fourth trauma center as part of each nonprofit’s multimillion-dollar expansion plan.
  (tags: trauma hospitals EMS)
• Bill Gates Memo
  This coming “services wave” will be very disruptive. We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us – still, the opportunity for us to lead is very clear. More than any other company, we have the vision, assets, experience, an
  (tags: Microsoft web2.0 webapps AJAX)
• Ray Ozzie Memo
  The demand for compelling, integrated user experiences that “just work.”
  (tags: Microsoft web2.0 webapps AJAX)
• Microsoft Revamp For Online Push Gains Urgency
  “It’s clear that if we fail to do so, our business as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Ozzie concluded, “We must respond quickly and decisively.” The emails are the clearest evidence yet of how seriously the company views the threats posed by a new generation
  (tags: AJAX Microsoft web2.0 webapps)

Hospitalist Surge

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• Hospitalists’ ranks surge across region
  The specialty, which joined the medical landscape in the mid-1990s, refers to physicians who care for patients from the time they are admitted to a medical center to the time they are discharged. They maintain no practice outside a hospital’s walls.
  (tags: physicians hospitals)

bTunes on your iBod

Somewhat old music that still plays well. Hat tip Dr. Tony. Also see engadget.

Musical breast implants | Ananova | 10.13.05

Computer chips that store music could soon be built into a woman’s breast implants.

One boob could hold an MP3 player and the other the person’s whole music collection.

BT futurology, who have developed the idea, say it could be available within 15 years.

BT Laboratories’ analyst Ian Pearson said flexible plastic electronics would sit inside the breast. A signal would be relayed to headphones, while the device would be controlled by Bluetooth using a panel on the wrist.

According to The Sun he said: “It is now very hard for me to thing of breast implants as just decorative. If a woman has something implanted permanently, it might as well do something useful.”

The sensors around the body linked through the electrical impulses in the chips may also be able to warn wearers about heart murmurs, blood pressure increases, diabetes and breast cancer.

I can hear the 911 call now, the music is so loud it is driving me crazy…

Not Ready

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• Doctors Say ERs Not Ready for a Disaster
  Trauma centers and emergency departments similarly are strained in many U.S. cities, experts say.
  (tags: EM safety_net)

Microsoft See Web2.0

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• Microsoft Announces New Online Services
  The offerings include Office Live, an online version of its Office suite of business productivity applications. The service is designed to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to set up and maintain Office than it is today . . . plans to o
  (tags: Microsoft Google web2.0)

Web 2.0