Results tagged “hospitals”

A clinical trial is taking place in San Francisco for HIV+ people who are exhibiting flu symptoms in which they can qualify for free in-home doctor visits. Quest Clinical Studies, Conant Medical Group and Adamas Pharmaceuticals are testing a triple combination antiviral drug (TCAD) therapy for influenza. If you or someone you know has HIV and is exhibiting 100-degree or higher fever in addition to fatigue and other symptoms, you should call 1-888-5-HIV-FLU to see if you qualify. In addition to receiving home treatment, study subjects will have all their treatment, including prescriptions and lab costs, covered, and will be compensated for time and travel.

This story comes out of Florida, not San Francisco, but it's pretty compelling. See, a few years ago, a hospital refused to let a lesbian, Janice Langbehn, see her dying partner, Lisa Pond, simply because they don't like gays. The couple had three kids together too, which made no difference to the Miami hospital. "[Jackson Memorial Hospital] did everything it could to prevent Langbehn from having any contact with Pond, and succeeded in keeping them apart until Pond died," reported Independent Gay Forum. Very recently, Langbehn sued the hospital and lost, with the court ruling that the hospital is under no obligation to accommodate homos. This is insane; this is inhumane. And as horrible and cruel as it is, this is what the people pushing Prop 8 (and Question 1 in Maine) actually WANT to happen to queer folk.

The California Department of Public Health announced today that 13 California hospitals were slammed with "administrative penalties of $25,000 per violation" due to said hospitals failed to comply with licensing requirements that caused serious injury or death to patients. According to a CDPH report, the University of California, San Francisco Medical Centerwas fined after "[t]he hospital failed to ensure the safety of a patient by not establishing a safe and effective system for the administration of high-risk medications. This is the facility’s second administrative penalty." Other hospitals penalized were John Muir Medical Center in Concord (who "failed to follow its own policies and procedures for restraining a patient for radiological exams") and the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance (where a patient had to "undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object," resulting in their death).

Cabo San Lucas turns into a ghost town, more schools close in the East Bay, WHO raises pandemic threat level to 5, hand sanitizer flying off shelves -- Swine Flu Watch 2K9 is in full effect. As of Wednesday evening, there were "12 confirmed or probable cases" of the piggie flu in Contra Costa, Marin, and Santa Clara counties. However, according to public health officials, keeping track of flu case numbers will be "futile" since it's "spreading too fast to count accurately." (Gulp.) What's more, with so many people afraid that they might have caught the swine flu, hospitals are setting up special flu processing centers. That it to say, triage tents and makeshift screening center are being setup, such as the one in the parking lot of Sutter Delta in Antioch.