THURSDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay) -- One in four women in the United States carries a bacterium that could cause a debilitating and life-threatening infection in their newborn babies. And many don't know it.

Infants who contract Group B streptococcus before or during birth can be miscarried, stillborn, or die soon after birth. Those who survive often suffer permanent disabilities such as blindness, deafness, mental retardation and cerebral palsy, according to Group B Strep International, a nonprofit group dedicated to informing the public about the disease.

MONDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) can help heart failure patients' hearts beat more efficiently and effectively, but most U.S. hospitals don't use it as it should be used, a new report finds.

CRT involves doctors implanting a device that paces the heart's main chambers to beat in sync.

MONDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) -- The number of Americans admitted to hospitals for heart failure has jumped in recent years, and the trend almost certainly will continue, government experts report.

"Our study covers more than two decades, from 1979 to 2004, and the number of hospitalizations almost tripled during that time," said Dr. Jing Fang, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author of the report in the Aug. 5 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

12% of all our babies will be born prematurely!

Everyone has always known someone who had a preemie (a baby born prior to 37 weeks in the womb) but at this rate, we all know a lot of someones! The Center for Disease Control studied 7 million babies over a decade, in an effort to understand why so many babies are born prematurely and any adverse affects they may experience.

Let's not forget that in most cases a preemie baby is not anyone's fault and in most instances there is nothing that could be done!

By Steven Reinberg
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- The quality of care at hospitals that treat poor and underserved patients, often called safety-net hospitals, is lagging well behind hospitals that do not serve these patients, a new study finds.

From working in nursing facilities both in Drama Therapy and as a Admissions Marketer, I am pretty familiar with MRSA - one of the so-called Superbugs seen in hospitals, nursing facilities and other similar institutions.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is commonly known as MRSA and is linked to 94,000 infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2005.

The newbie - Clostridium difficile - known as C.diff, is MRSA's nearest competitor in the bacterial infection stakes and is catching up fast. Almost 27,000 people in America died from a C.diff infection in 2005.

By Steven Reinberg
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, April 22 (HealthDay News) -- Hospitals that perform fewer cardiac bypass operations don't have more deaths following the procedure than hospitals that handle a greater number of bypasses, a new study says.

Doctor referral services are becoming more plentiful, if that's the right word, these days, particularly in our area with so many new clinics and hospitals opening. When we moved here nearly 30 years ago, a referral service was practically non-existent and we went by personal referrals. Now you can even get ratings and reviews that can be informative and useful.

Hospitals are now apparently checking into a patient's credit score to gauge their ability to pay.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/03/18/t...

"Hospitals say it allows them to figure out more quickly which patients qualify for financial assistance programs, and makes them less likely to hound people who can’t or won’t pay. Some consumer advocates warn that the process could lead hospitals to deny elective procedures to patients unlikely to pay."

Do you think checking a patient's financial history is a good idea?

What has been your experience at hospitals during off hours? Have you observed that the quality of care appears to be lower? Or have you noticed that things were maintained extremely well despite lower staffing?